Wooden Pallet Or Other Recycled Wood Or Plastic – For Yard Waste Only!
There are lots of materials you can build this particular type of compost bin out of; old wooden pallets, recycled plastic, old wooden snow fencing or salvaged lumber.
Using Wooden Pallets: Nail or tie together with wire four pallets to make a four sided bin. The finished bin will be about the size of a three foot cube. You could use a fifth pallet as a base to allow for more air circulation and since you’re not going to be using this for kitchen compost materials, there is no danger of vermin getting into it.
Building With Lumber – Salvaged Or Otherwise
You will need 4 four foot lengths of 2x4 for the corner posts. Choose a three foot square site for your bin. Use a sledge hammer to pound the four foot posts into the ground, if your ground is soft enough to do that. In some places in the Rogue Valley, one might need a jack hammer!
Next, find some lumber that’s at least ½ inch thick and 6 inches wide. You will need five three foot lengths per side. Nail these to the posts to make a four sided container. Leave and inch and a half to two inches between each board to allow for air flow.
If you have the room to do so, a second bin could be set up so you’ve got one to fill up while the other one is aging. Also, I might not pound the posts in, but rather construct a box that one could pull over and get the compost out of. Construct your cube and simply set it in place.
You can put your posts in the ground and wrap the outside with wooden snow fencing as well. In fact, you can make a more permanent structure with three separate bins for aging your compost using the wooden snow fencing and you can make a removable front for them so that you can get to the finished compost more easily.
Wire Mesh Compost Bins
This has got the be the easiest and cheapest way to build a compost bin for yard waste there is! A wire mesh bin can be made out of either galvanized chicken wire or hardware cloth. You can use regular chicken wire, but your bin won’t last as long. You can use posts to provide stability, but then your bin is more difficult to move. You could always just sink your posts only a couple of inches into the ground, or put them on the outside of the wire a couple of inches into the ground and tie the wire to the posts. The beauty of the wire is that it’s easy to move and you can get at the compost at the bottom of the bin that’s already done.
So, get yourself a length of chicken wire and fold back about 4 inches on each end so that you have a nice, smooth edge to work with that isn’t going to scratch the daylights out of you when you’re not looking. Stand the wire in a circle and set it in place for the compost pile. Cut some heavy wire (baling wire works well, too, if you’ve got some of that around or even baling twine) into lengths for ties. Secure the ends of the wire together with the ties to form a circle. You can space any kind of post around the circle. I’ve seen it done both ways; inside and outside the wire – it’s up to you. If you want an even more sturdy wire bin, you can use hardware cloth or even orchard fencing. They’re a little harder to cut and handle, but will last longer than chicken wire.
Garbage Bin Composter – This Bin Can Include Kitchen Trimmings
Get yourself a 32 gallon plastic garbage bin; the kind with the locking handles. Also, I think the darker ones are better because they heat up faster when they’re in the sun. It’s really best to get the most sturdy bin you can find.
Next get out your drill. You need to make holes all over your bin, including the lid. Fill it up and lock on the lid.
You can put a variety of materials into your bin. The general consensus is that you should mix your “browns” (dry materials) equally with your “greens” (wet materials). Green materials are rich in nitrogen and include fresh grass clippings, pruned plants (but NOT diseased clippings!), coffee grounds, tea leaves or bags (no staples in those bags!) and fruits, vegetables and their peelings. Your brown materials are carbon-rich and include shredded paper, leaves, straw, sawdust (from untreated wood), wood chips and dried twigs. Manure, which is a green material, is a great addition to your bin and there are lots of places where you could get this locally, usually for the asking. Whatever you do, don’t put in your bin any kind of oil or grease or meat or dairy products. At certain times, your bin will give off a slight odor. It is much less than you would expect even if you’ve added quite a bit of manure. In the event that your bin gets quite smelly, you’ve probably not added enough brown material and you can correct that by adding more and rolling your bin around on it’s side to mix it in a bit.
You’ll have to check your bin from time to time. More frequently in warmer weather, because you will have to add water. You don’t want your bin to dry out because you’ll lose the nutrients in the mixture that you need to feed your soil.
Depending on what you’ve put in your bin and the temperature outside, you should have a fresh batch of compost in 1 to 3 months. Again, you might want to make two so you’ve got one to fill while the other is cooking.
When what’s in your bin is dark blackish-brown and rather resembles what comes out of those spendy bags of organic fertilizer, it’s ready to use!
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