DIY Compost Bin

Finished building my second compost bin (hopefully many more to come) last Wednesday afternoon, just in time for Thanksgiving. As with everything practice makes perfect, and this second bin is quite an improvement over my first attempt. The bin was constructed using five wooden pallets, four pieces of masonry, two rolls of chicken fence, four door hinges, two metal handles, and many nails.

The first step for making the bin was to level out the area where it was constructed to give a stable base. This process was mostly easy except for one large root of a nearby white pine. We excavated around the root and then sawed and hacked until we were able to yank out the interfering piece. Next I leveled out the ground and set in masonry on the back corners to protect the wood from rotting out too quickly. It wouldn't do to go to all this trouble building a compost bin to then have to re-do it after only a few years. The front corners were already resting on masonry, which made the job that much easier.

Next we laid out the pallets to get a sense for how everything would fit together, and then cut the two top pieces and the front door down to the appropriate sizes. Once completed, I attached chicken fence to the in-facing sides of each panel using a dearth of nails. Pallet wood has a tendency to be extremely dense and hard, and also to split easily when nailed. The best compromise I've found is using thinner nails that are less likely to split the wood, but which are in turn highly susceptible to bending on impact with the hammer. Once everything was fenced, I started nailing pallets together using the previously-determined layout. I then attached the two doors with door hinges and finished by trimming back the chicken fence where it was sticking out.



This compost bin has two doors - one in front, and one on top. The top door is where the compost is tossed in. It's made up of about a quarter of a pallet, and it's hinged and has a solid metal handle.




The front door allows access for turning and removing the compost, and it's approximately three quarters of a pallet, hinged and handled. I call this model the DeLorean of composting because of the way the doors are constructed.



Total cost: about $50 plus time. The pallets and masonry were free, and I'm sure many other components could've been as well had time allowed.

Microorganisms at Work

By next year, all our fruit and veggie wastes will be an awesomely rich fertilizer for the garden. Thanks to the front door on the bin, we'll be able to extract the goods with a minimum of effort.