Making a Compost Bin

roytg94
roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

Here is my first attempt to add a Youtube video. Save your food scraps, help the planet and improve your harvest!


Comments

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2020

    We made a compost bin towards the beginning of the summer. We also just used a spare garbage can we drilled holes in. Thanks for sharing your video!

  • Angel
    Angel Posts: 61 ✭✭✭

    Good work! I have been vermincomposting for years, but this is the first year I am building a compost bin.

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    @karenjanicki Thanks for sharing the use of a garbage can with drilled holes in it. Did you drill holes in the sides and the bottom? What size holes? I am trying to stay away from plastic as much as possible, so I would like to try drill holes in a metal garbage can to create compost. One person used metal roofing material with a square metal cover and wire mesh on the bottom to allow worms to migrate freely. Another person put the metal garbage can up on short risers to keep it off the ground. What did you do?

    There is also a very expensive $1400 compost machine that creates compost in 24 hours using controlled heating and constant mixing by motor. It claims to have no odor and nothing to replace. Here is the link: https://www.compostology.us/gg02

    There are many DIY videos like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKAZEx4-zUI&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=TheSelfRelianceProject

    Sharing is caring!

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    @karenjanicki Oops! I forgot to mention this link for a compost bin made from metal roofing material: https://www.speedibin.com/products/delux-speedibin

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    If you have a lot of compost to process, here is a cheap alternative: USE WIRE MESH CLOTH with stakes. Make it yourself as big and tall as you want (minimum of 3 feet on all sides).

    https://www.basicsofgardening.com/wire-mesh-compost-bin.html

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for the information :). I appreciate you sharing that with me.

  • Thomas
    Thomas Posts: 81 ✭✭✭

    This is the basics of what we do. We used old field fence. Depending on how things are going sometimes we have to add some grass to the edges to keep everything in. But, in the end, cheap, and works well.

  • Jack_Went_Splat
    Jack_Went_Splat Posts: 59 ✭✭✭

    One of my side jobs included a compost barre las well as various pieces of lumber in exchange for removing a fowl coop. Very ingenious and easily reproduced. Only issue appears to be, it will be hard to keep it moist for the microbes in our dry climate in the high mountain desert of NM. Some of the holes drilled in the container probably need to be sealed to maintain a bit of the moisture or inspect more closely to see if there is a portion that will allow the moisture to be held instead of draining completely. I'll get some pictures of it in the light tomorrow.

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    @Jack_Went_Splat Good point. The article did not mention using a heavy cloth covering over everything to keep in the moisture. In NM you will certainly need to add water to keep the microbes alive.

  • Jack_Went_Splat
    Jack_Went_Splat Posts: 59 ✭✭✭

    My hope is this was a food grade barrel to begin with but, not sure. It seems to hold on to the compost material with some weather stripping around the inside of the door. I added the handle to assist with turning, made out of a bolt and 1 1/4" PVC and similarly sized fender washers. Keeping the ratio of brown vs. green seems to work to keep the smell down. Now considering how to best plug holes drilled in the sides of the barrel. Most likely some 1/4" carriage bolts It was a bit wobbly so added shelf brackets and a couple more stabilizing cross pieces, front and back. You can see the front stabilizer as it is the non-weathered wood above the shelf brackets on the front.

  • Wendy
    Wendy Posts: 138 ✭✭✭

    My compost pile is just that, a pile. It is on the edge of the property, under a multiple-trunk tree, with no fencing or borders of any kind. The area was cleared first, although not much was growing under the tree to begin with. We add raked leaves, garden trimmings, and any food scraps from our kitchen. Every few months it is mixed with a shovel. Each spring I dig up the bottom of the pile to add to my garden boxes - it is dark, rich, and ready to use.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I use pallets. Thye are free around her and I can select any size I want from one foot to 10 foot. I use the small one, 2 or 3 foot , and use baling twine to tie them together. The bailing twine is from my hay so its free and will last the season.

    By tying it together I can move it or take it apart to harvest compost.

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    @Wendy Having a hard time picturing what you've created. Tree trunks on top with compost on the bottom?

  • roytg94
    roytg94 Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    @Denise Grant With the COVID-19 restrictions it is hard for us to get anything free anymore. I like your idea of using strong string or twine better using screws and hinges which did not work well for us. The door was heavy to swing open. Next time, if we can get pallets, I'll use a wire door in the front instead. Thanks for your thoughts!

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @roytg94 That is sad its harder for you to get free items. I have not noticed that here. I really enjoy recycling and giving something a new life one more time before its disposed of. Hopefully that will change for you soon.

    Good luck!

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Jack_Went_Splat

    I know two people that use this design. It has worked well for them and if you can get a free or cheap barrel its a great cheaper option.

    I also know someone who just used a barrel and pushed it on the round to rotate the compost inside. It was not as efficient but they did not have the option at that time to build a barrel holder

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    ive had friends try the barrel on and she struggled with that concept so i told her i used just pallets tied together to make a box if you have enough room to put 3 boxes nex to each other then you can turn the pile from the first to the second after a while then to the third and then you'll have compost. i don't have a picture sorry