Make a compost tea for your container plants by adding a shovelful or two of ready compost in a burlap bag or old pillow case. Let it sit in a bucket of water for about two days. The tea can then be diluted with more water or used directly on your plants. This is a great way to add those minerals and nutrients to your plants a couple times during the year. To make a compost pile in your backyard, you can use many different mediums.
Some people prefer wire or wooden compost bins, while others insist on just using a pile.
We find that a pile works great and it is free to make. Although sometimes I wish I had a nice wooden pile made with fallen tree branches for a rustic look. You can build your soil in different layers and it doesn't matter which rotation they go. For example, you can start with one foot of two or three forkfuls of leaves, two or three of straw and so forth. Make the base of the compost roughly four feet square and taper the sides a bit as your work upward so that the top is roughly three feet square.