Compost Bins

Well it's been a long time since I posted. I've been busy with yard projects this summer. I built a fence and then use the old fence to build a compost bin.

I hated throwing out kitchen scraps and the garden always generates a bunch of waste so I thought a compost bin would be a good idea. I'd never built one before and only ever used one of the plastic ones. There are rebates from my city to buy one of the plastic ones but I was still looking at spending $50 and I had all this old wood from my fence sitting around. The more of the wood I can use the less it'll cost me to take the rest to the dump.

I looked at a few sites and kind of just ran with it.

http://www.saskwastereduction.ca/recycle/resources/composting/composting-style/large-compost-bins/three-compartment-compost-bin

http://andrewsigal.blogspot.ca/2013/09/building-2-bin-composter.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Best-Triple-Compost-Bin/

I live in a really dry area so I wasn't worried about a lid and being so dry I thought wood slat sides with a little space would be the best plan. This saved me from having to buy a bunch of hardware cloth. My old fence was made of posts and long 1 x 8 boards with no stringers so I had exactly what I needed to build a bin. I had a few good 10 foot long boards so I thought a three bin composter would work well, 3 feet each.

The rear boards run the full length and give a bit of structure to the whole thing. The other walls are 3 feet long and have 4x4 posts at every corner. None of the wood is treated and it's all very old so I'm expecting this to compost itself in a few years.

The front board at the bottom adds rigidity.

The three boards on the front of each bin are removable.

All setup and in it's final location.

A month in and the compost is coming a long nicely. I didn't expect it to move very quickly but in a month half the volume is gone and it looks dark and smells like dirt. I've been told the more you mix it the faster it goes.