Composters Aren’t Pretty

May 16, 2026

I know that composters aren’t pretty but I started to drown out the eyesore in the corner of my garden. It was like white noise in my little backyard oasis and with every passing day I noticed it less and less. Then I posted my garden’s progress photos last month and was confronted by just how ugly that thing actually is. Overnight, it changed from white noise to a five alarm visual fire. Something needed to be done.

I let a few ideas roll around in my head before deciding on a little fence that mimicked the one that Matt and I built a few years ago. It’s surprising how many of the tips and tricks we learned in making the first fence stuck with us for this one. We banged the whole thing out in three and a half hours.

Not only is it not an eyesore anymore, it’s functioning better than I imagined. There is a clear path leading up to the composter. I don’t have to watch every step on my way up hoping not to step on anything important. I changed the orientation of the composter so now there is room for me to stand on the cement blocks instead of in the garden. And possibly the most important thing, I can set the lid from the can on the fence while I’m emptying the bucket instead of fishing it out of the mud under the plants where it fell in the awkward process of emptying it. Little things can make such a big difference.