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i built myself a compost bin from pallets this morning and i'm chuffed to pieces with myself!. it wasnt tricky....i've secured the corners with wire rather than nails so i can take sides off as needed...either to turn or to dismantle and use the compost next yr.

erm.....should i put anything round the sides? or a cover on it?


eta, sorry, i tried to load the pic via photobucket but cant remember my login info!!.

Very nice! I would just leave it like that - unless you have a lot of small stuff going in that you don't want falling out the sides... But this way it gets plenty of fresh air. Might want to cover it if it rains too much.

Lovely

Blow away Kiwirach!!!!....looking good!

thanks guys, i'm really proud of myself, cos i've never done anything like that before!!

You should be proud that is AWESOME!!
What a great way to have spent your day.

kiwirach, congratulations on having made something! It's a good feeling, isn't it?

However, in my experience, what you've built won't work very well. I built something along similar lines and kept putting in garden and kitchen waste.

However much I put in, it generally sank down in a few days, but it didn't really make compost. After about two years, when I moved house and dismantled the thing, there was a layer of rich compost maybe about 5 cm deep at the bottom. Then there was about 50 cm of compacted, dry vegetable matter, then a layer of fresh stuff. It was a good way of getting rid of kitchen and garden waste, but useless for making usable compost. The compost never got hot, so it was more of a midden than a compost heap.

In my new place, I built a structure out of wire, with two sections.
This allows me to climb in or lean in and fork the compost once a week, and it also enables one pile to be sitting maturing when it's nearly ready. Weekly forking makes the compost get hot (as long as it rains from time to time and stays moist), and this breaks it down very quickly, as well as making a product that you can use.

If I could resite my compost, I'd make it into 3 open bays so that compost piles can be tossed easily between bays. If you have any more pallets, space, and the inclination to do it, you could modify your current setup to a 3-bay affair.

That way, you can add the joy of active, hot compost to the joy of construction.

Rod, yours is the luxury version of compost heaps...

I have something very similar to kiwi's, but I do need to dig it all out once a year, and pile it up separately.

Well done, can't beat building your own stuff

Russ

Rod, thanks for your input......getting the pallets were a nightmere, so while i'd like 2 or more boxes, it'll take time. i'm also not sure this is the find resting place of the bin yet either...this is my first 6months on my allotment and the area i chose was an area that didnt have plastic over it!!.

its all a learning curve!.

Well, we have something very similar which DOES work. The only real difference is that it's covered (at the top, not the sides) all of the time with a thick pad of anything we can find at the time. This keeps in the heat, which is absolutely necessary for compost formation. Of course, you also have to ensure that the heap never dries out.

thanks MKG, i will look to get something to cover it with.....will keep an eye out on freecycle of just use some of the black plastic i remove as i work the plot.

Bit of old carpet will do the trick too - just ask on your freecycle group, you'll only need about 1 square meter.

Carpet has the advantage of letting through some water, so it won't dry out. Otherwise, an opened up compost bag might work, too. I'm too lazy to do all this covering up etc; my compost is "slow" compost - it probably doesn't get very hot, and it takes a couple of years to turn out right.

Must get around to posting some pictures from our site. Since the security fencing went up many of the plotholders have been confident enough to put up hanging baskets and greenhouses. The compost bins are a work of art. The plotholders with cars were getting scratches from the rusting corrugated iron that made most of the double width bins that line the driveway, so some retired members have slowly been cladding or converting them all to wooden ones, utilising dismantled pallets.
Ashamed to say mine is still rusting metal
But it is 6' long by 3' wide and is a full mix of donkey manure(living by the seaside) and veg waste plus grass clippings. I turn once a year and it is crumbly spreadable goodness within 12 months.