Building Compost Bins
Finally, after months of not creating anything, I was ready to build Compost Bins for the farm! This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for some time. I created a single compost bin for our house in Denver but the spacing was too compact, it was in a shady area and was right next to our neighbor’s fence. In that first attempt, I didn’t really know what I was doing.
Prior to my second try at constructing them, I did research. This included watching several videos on You Tube on how to build compost bins using wooden pallets! I’ve included the links to these videos at the end of this blog. My friend Laurie saved pallets for me from her Peach deliveries over the mountain this past fall. I used seven in total to build three compost bins. The pallets were paint free and in good condition. You want paint free pallets so as not to add any unwanted toxins to your decomposing materials. I loaded five pallets up in my SUV and Andy snagged the last two on his way home from a haircut.
With the Chicken coop finally demolished, I had the perfect location. When determining where to place your compost bins, you need to make sure it is a sunny location, away from your neighbors, and away from trees. You never want to place your compost bins next to or under trees because the tree roots will take away the nutrients from the compost. You want to avoid placing them close to your neighbor’s property because of the potential smell that could come from the compost. To help the material decompose you need both light (sunlight) and water, so you need to make sure that a water source is easily accessible. My Denver compost bin had none of the above which explains why it was unsuccessful!
With the location identified, and the pallets secured, it was time to build! For this part, all you need are screws, a level, and an electric screw drive. I used two-inch screws because that is what I had available. If a pallet wasn’t level, I used stones that I found around the area to raise the sides. I chose to set the pallets up so they were wide verses tall, but you can orient them in whichever fashion you like. The bins are open in the front so I oriented them so that the front with all the ‘goodness’ spilling out would not be seen by any guests who might visit the farm or stay in our future Guest House. Next to the bins, I plan on setting up our first Hoop House so this too will block the view. Once I had the first pallet in place and level, I took the second one and screwed it into the first thus creating an ‘L’ shape. I then took the third pallet and attached it to the second pallet with a screw at the top and one at the bottom. Now I had an open box that was in the shape of a ‘U’. I added the fourth pallet which then created an ‘F’ shape. The fifth pallet turned the ‘F’ into an ‘E’. With each new pallet addition, I checked to make sure they continued to be level and I attached them at the top and the bottom. Where it was possible, I also joined them in the middle as well. I continued by adding the sixth and seventh pallet so that by then end I had three square bins attached in a row which were open in the front and at the top.
To ensure that the bottoms didn’t push outward as the bins became full of compost, I attached metal corner brackets at the top and bottom of each section with flat metal plates along the back of the bins where each section connected. With that, the compost bins were complete!
To ensure that weeds didn’t make their way in from the bottom, I placed a layer of cardboard (broken down boxes from the move) at the bottom. This layer will eventually decompose with the rest of the compost but as they were large pieces of cardboard, it should take some time and hopefully by then the weeds will be starved of light etc… and shouldn’t be a problem. On top of the cardboard, I placed a thin layer of farm animal manure. The next layer was sticks from the trees we cut down. They were the trees behind the barn that were hindering my endeavors to renovate it. To help the composting along, I cut the sticks into smaller sizes with the hope that they will decompose more easily. On that I will place the coffee grounds, eggshells, apple peels etc… that we’ve been collecting from the kitchen. The next layer after that will be grass clippings and then we will start the layering process all over again. We had a good rain the other day so I’ve not had to add water yet, but if it gets too dry, I will give the compost pile a good dose of water.
My goal is to fill one compost bin at a time. Once one bin is full, I will move onto the next one, that way I will always have composting going on at different stages and in theory not run out! Overall, it was an easy DIY project and one I thoroughly enjoyed making. If you are interested in making your own compost bins using wooden pallets, I’ve included the videos I used below. If you don’t have a friend who happens to have extra pallets to share, you can check out your local grocery store, home improvement store, or garden store and see if they have any pallets to spare.
Building Compost Bin Research:
https://joegardener.com/video/how-to-make-a-compost-bin-using-free-shipping-pallets/
