To compost shower or not?
It works. And I'm sure if you've got the left-overs of an entire commune to throw away, a few meat-eaters (compost loves a bit of blood apparently), five volunteers to keep the compost ticking over, plus a coolish damp climate, then the compost shower is going to be right up your permie alley. But for me?
Whenever I'm trying out a new sustainable living or permaculture idea, there are a number of factors I'm considering. I'm always weighing up the effort of making it and maintaining it, versus the results. I'm a single woman, not an entire off-the-grid farming team. The compost shower may indeed be brilliant, but for me the effort of sustaining the compost pile was far more of a bother than simply heating the water on my stove which was burning anyway. And easier still would be to install a couple of solar heating panels which in Turkey are cheap and efficient. But, that isn't to say we didn't have fun making it. So if you want to know how, here goes.
Whenever I'm trying out a new sustainable living or permaculture idea, there are a number of factors I'm considering. I'm always weighing up the effort of making it and maintaining it, versus the results. I'm a single woman, not an entire off-the-grid farming team. The compost shower may indeed be brilliant, but for me the effort of sustaining the compost pile was far more of a bother than simply heating the water on my stove which was burning anyway. And easier still would be to install a couple of solar heating panels which in Turkey are cheap and efficient. But, that isn't to say we didn't have fun making it. So if you want to know how, here goes.
How to make a compost shower.
1. Clear a space for your compost mound. Alternatively bribe your neighbours with a curry, and they will do it for you.
Kieran and Ted making short work of the plant clearing. 
3. Next comes a green layer. Weeds, fresh cut grass, tree clippings or even an unidentified leek-like wild plant, all do the job.
5. Put one end of the hose where your shower head will be. Thanks Ted.
7. Keep layering the compost over the hose; brown, green and gunk, until you have cooked up an attractive 'concime tricolore'.
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For a truly stinking heap of ordure (the grosser it is, the better it cooks apparently) you need multi-coloured layers. First comes the brown. Straw, dead grass or dry leaves are great for starting off your pile.
Not sure why Kieran is about to eat the mouldy grass here, I did promise him the curry was on its way. 
4. Now add a gunk layer. Rotting vegetables, your organic waste, fish remants, or the sess pool that's collected on your plastic, are all fantastic. You might not be able to bribe anyone else to do this bit though, no matter how good your curry is.
 Kieran keeping the hose kinkless.
6. Now bring in the hose. You can coil it, wind it, figure-of-eight it, loop-the-loop, make it look like a refrigerator back; the possibilities are endless. Just make sure there's plenty of hose in that muck, and it's not kinked.
8. Stick a tarp, or plastic sheet, on top. Wait a month or so. Keep topping up the compost when you can. Eventually, you should have a shower that's pumping out water at temperatures of over 100 degrees centigrade. Eventually . . .
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