A lot of people are perfectly happy with making compost in their compost pile. And that's just great. But you might find you're
not totally satisfied with your own compost pile. One reason might be how it's always a pain to mow around the pile with your lawn
mower, accidentally shooting egg shells, coffee filters and banana peels around the yard. Or maybe the weeds at the edge of your compost pile
are growing like they just got hit with a blast of liquid nitrogen. So naturally, you're looking for a solution. Building a homemade compost bin
may be just the answer you're searching for.
Homemade compost bins are usually constructed with 3 to 4 sides, a back side - the actual side panels and then occasionally a front side,
but you can use your imagination and build your own compost bin to your personal specifications. Let's first look at some typical compost
bin setups and maybe you'll find the best compost bin to contain your compost.
Wood Pallet Compost Bin
The wood pallet compost bin is a pretty simple and ideal compost bin project. You can build a wood pallet compost bin by keeping your wooden
pallets whole, as you are likely to find them, or you can pull the slats off of one side where the pallet actually looks more like a fence.
Either way, you need to stand 4 pallets on their sides & arrange the pallets into a box-like shape and then secure them together with either
hinges, metal strapping or even string. The metal holding the pallets together will of course last much longer than the string, but the string
can be removed much easier to make moving your compost bin to another location a lot simpler. Leave one side of the compost bin loose so you can
use it as a door to open and close when you add compost materials or turn your compost. You can find wooden shipping pallets at just about any
local manufacturer, place of business or even sitting up against a dumpster. Just be sure to ask first if you may have the pallets. Once you've
constructed your wooden pallet compost bin, simply fill with your compost materials.
Concrete Block Compost Bin
The concrete block compost bin is yet another easy to build compost bin project that doesn't take long to build and looks great holding all of your
wonderful compost. You can get by with constructing the compost bin with whole concrete blocks and butting the sides up to the back wall, but by
using half blocks you can tie all three walls together to form a more solid compost bin. And while you can technically pour a concrete base for the
structure to be set upon, it's really not necessary and doesn't serve much of a purpose unless you will be using mortar to hold your cinder block
compost bin together. Otherwise, as long as you build the compost bin on a level location, your concrete blocks will contain your compost just fine.
Wood and Wire Compost Bin
To make a wood and wire compost bin, you'll need to gather some wood for the compost bin frame and then a quality wire to cover the frame with. A popular
choice of wood for this type of compost bin is 2X4's, but a decay resistant wood such as cedar will last much longer. Four pieces of the wood are
secured together to form something similar to a picture frame. Once you have 4 of these built you'll want to cover them with a galvanized wire. You can use
chicken wire, but a better choice of wire to use would be what is commonly known as rabbit wire. It's much thicker and will last a lot longer. When you
have the four frames covered you need to stand them all up to form a box and then use fasteners to hold them all together. As was explained with the
wooden pallet compost bin above, use hinges on one of the front corners so you can open and close the compost bin with ease.
Homemade Compost Tumbler
You can even make a homemade compost tumbler out of several common household items. One idea is to use an old plastic garbage can as a compost tumbler.
Just add your kitchen scraps and other composting material and occasionally roll it on the bottom edge to distribute the compost material around inside.
While this may work for those with small amounts of working compost, if you have large amounts of compost that you are working with this just wouldn't
be practical. If you own your own welder or know someone that does, you can build your own homemade compost tumbler pretty easily. Just take a look
around your home and try to find items you can use to make your own homemade compost bin. The possibilities are virtually endless.
