hello everybody, i want to build a compost bin (with the current heap i can't salvage the water) and i'v got a general idea of what i want. i scrounged an old window screen to serve as the floor. this is about 3 by 4 feet with of course, 4 corners. so, four stakes go into the ground with a nail driven in each one to support the corners of the screen, which will be about 4-6 inches above the ground. a rectangular pan underneath catches the compost water, which i'll use for my poor little garden and to help trees grow in the surrounding land that my neighbors have successfully raped and blighted. anyway, what can i use as the sides? i'm thinking loose window screen, but then would i be losing some water?should i use wood or something that has no holes? will screen even support the floor or sides? if somebody's done this successfully or just has ideas, i'd love to hear them. Thanks and love to all of you!
Ive used scrap plywood before with acceptable results, its very sturdy and holds the pile up fairly high, but it dosent allow any air in through the sides. I guess the best would be two by fours spaced 3 or 4" apart and then throw up a layer of fine mesh chicken wire ont he outside to hold in the small stuff and still allow it more air. It dosent really matter as long as you turn it once a month, or even more is better. Of course you can not turn it at all and it will eventually work out. Thats the great thing about compost, as long as you DO IT it will work out for you. The amount of effort you put in will dictate how fast your grocery scraps turn into food for your plants. Ive just moved into a new house and the backyard is bare, so for now ive just been piling my compost in a heap in the corner of the yard and thorwing a couple inchs of leaves whenever I see people put them in bags for the city to pick up. Leaves are your best friend in composting, next to worms I guess. Good luck.
thanks. i'm supposed to cover it up in dry weather, right? moisture is my friend, i'v been told. i would be building right now but it's raining like a sonofabitch outside. had i done it a day earlier!:& i'd have some great water coming to me and my halloween pumpkin and scraps from the last 2 weeks wouldn't be stinking my family out now! :jester: oh, and i live in the piney woods. you know if straw will work as well as leaves? thanks! lots of love to you!
Yeah straw works the same as leaves, only slower to decompose. I dont bother covering it in warm weather. I keep bags and bags of leaves handy year round and in hot weather I put a 2" layer on top and soak it with water, as long as the leaves are moist you know the pile underneath is in great shape, once the leaves dry out, if theres no hint of rain soak it with the hose. Or keep rainbarrels, I havent gotten into the rainbarrels yet, but I will, someday. Or cover it, anything works, as long as it works.
I'm not really answering your question but I compost as well, using a plastic purpose made bin. You can buy those with a tank underneath which catches the liquid fertilizer. I put all my kitchen scraps, rabbit litter, cut hair (from my kids and husband) and smaller garden rubbish in it but not leaves because they don't de-compose in the times between my digging out the finished compost, which I use as mulch on the garden, sometimes for potting plants. Suprisingly few people seem to be really committed to composting here but I think as green issues are pushed it is becoming more popular. Some people seem to jiust find it disgusting and prefer the out of sight out mind thing regarding their rubbish. The first compost heap I made was just four wooden stakes supporting a length of plastic mesh. Again this does'nt collect the 'juice' but works just fine. Containers are better to avoid attracting vermin. However you work out your bin, good luck, I'm sure it'll work just fine.
thanks hun i'm going to start tomorrow. you guys have all given me great insight and i'm sure the bin will really work out. if i catch the stuff and my dogs and cats try to drink it, is that safe or will the manure content be harmful? my first puppy died because she drank water from a bucket we'd left half full of fertilizer that had filled up with rainwater. so this is always a worry. thanks! lots of love!
I would say that window screen mesh made from would be no where near strong enough. For the floor you want direct contact with the earth. If you want to speed things up, tip the vegetable matter on the ground and go over with a lawn mower. It will do a good job chopping it up. It is essential to have manures and preferably blood & bone to speed up the composting process. When you mix in manures and after a week you then go and mix it up and see it has heated up appreciably then you know things are happening. The other thing is don’t compost in galvanised iron dustbins. Although zinc is a nutrient in plant nutrition –and human nutrition for that matter- you will be dosing your plants with toxic levels of zinc.
I cover my bins, so as far as I can tell I don't get any liquid runoff. Bilby's right, if you get direct contact with the earth things seem to progress faster. Turning it fairly often speeds things up, and it's worth the money to buy a compost fork. The thin tines go into the compost much better than a garden fork or shovel, and a compost fork is pretty light in comparison to either. I got mine for a little less than $30 from johnnyseeds.com My bins are super-simple - just buy a 10' piece of 3' wide hardware cloth (aka ratwire), form into a tube and overlap the ends about 6", and bend about a dozen of the little wires down on each end to hold it together. When it's time to turn the heap, just slip the wire up off the heap, place it beside the heap, and refill. Wear gloves when you take it off, though, as it's a little hard on the hands. I keep one of those little hand garden forks with three tines hung on the side, if I don't the rest of the family just throw scraps on top instead of burying them. I laid a piece of paneling about 4' x 4' on top with a brick laid on top to keep the wind from picking it up so easily. It isn't gorgeous, but it works like a charm.
Instead of making a bin maybe consider digging a largehole, putting about a foot of gravel in the bottom (to irrigate the water) and the screen on top with stakes in it. It would take a lot less water. I guess it would depend on where you lived too it would be great for down here beccause it's super warm.
man, I just started a compost pile, about 4 days ago. I was upset about how much veg waste we were throwing away for a long time. But language barriers with my mother in law (we live with her..) made me worry about bringing up composting. She likes everything clean and tidy. BUT, amazingly she went for the idea when I explain it will make very good and healthy soil for her plants. We have a flat roof here, and she keeps plants up there. so I put a pile of veg waste in a corner. NOW, I have two rabbits so I can put their poo in the compost pile. Also, my husband went to the vegetable market and got a HUGE bag of cauliflower leaves (which no one eats) for practically free. They lasted 3 days. And anyone who has rabbits knows how much they eat. Mine never seem to stop! About half of the leaves he brought were tooo bad to feed them, so they went into the compost pile It's amazing how a pile of rotting vegetables can make us so happy, huh?
I think it's awesome that so many folks have built their composts from raw materials.... very cool... it almost seems like I'm the only sucker around here who actually went down and bought my composter from a box store Oh well, mine works just as well.
i threw my pile up agains a fence and just let it do it's own thing, I try to add a layer of cut grass rakings(since I don't bag them) on top right before the dry part of summer and turn it infrequently, I let it do it's own thing it let's me do mine... oOh and if you have cats don't worry about the rodents and stuff, the cat's will find something to hunt/play with and you get entertainment and less rodents, and if the rodents don't get caught they get an easy meal. everyone wins!
I use a couple of regular galvanized cans painted black and punched full of holes. I am not collecting the effluent but instead move the cans around every so often so different positions in the yard can benefit.
those are pretty great ideas, guys..however i've now constructed mine with the help of my wonderful guy and the use of my dad's collection. the man is amazing. he is so green. he saves EVERYTHING. it's because of him that i didn't buy one single thing to make this with. i drove four broomsticks into the ground (two wooden, two metal), placed cinderblocks at the four corners, and balanced two old window screens (warped by hurricane katrina) on top of them. i wrapped old porch screen (also torn down by hurricane ) around the poles, stapling it to the two wooden ones and twist tying it to the metal ones. i tucked the porch screen between the window screens and voila! i keep a stick beside it for stirring and drain it into rubbermaid tote lids. everyhting has worked out great, and i appreciate the input. thanks everybody!
Its so great to see people using what would only end up in the dump. Funny thing is that my mother though oh well it will go into the land at the dump. Im like mom come on the land below all the stuff in the dump is wasted. Its land that is polluted and when things like lets say plastic for exampl do start to decompose you actually think the banna peels your throwing out in your trash are gonna help that land? Its a complete waste. I hate to buy things in general with alot of packaging and I have been tryin to sort anything that I can thats plastic. I know that I have reduced the amount of garbage thats thrown out by at least 50%. I will be making my own compost heap this spring along with a rain barrel for the rain that we get that slides down off of our roof. I just put a barrel underneath the gutters! Then I take that water which is def. all natural and use it in my gardens instead of using water from the faucet. Just another idea to add to all the good ones you guys have on here. YOu guys rock!!! The earth says thank you im sure
In my household, we use 3 tubes made out of heavy chicken wire, which is pretty cheap at a hardware store. You get good ground contact and air circulation with this method. I have to say that we're pretty neglectful of it... We never cover the bins, but we do sort of fluff it around with a rake every now and then. That's essentially it, and it seems to be making pretty good compost.
A plastic one? If you use a galvinised iron one you will put toxic levels of zinc into the soil where the compost is applied.
I agree, so I don't use the galvanized can compost for food, only ornamental areas. We do all of our food planting in controlled areas and test the soil. Mother Earth News has a wonderful article on organic soil prep. "A plastic one? If you use a galvinised iron one you will put toxic levels of zinc into the soil where the compost is applied."
