I just completed another project building a rotating compost bin out of scrap deck wood. I am no carpenter and focus more on utility than appearance (obviously 🙂 ). I have had a compost bin located in my garden for several years and wanted another. Originally I created a couple of circular enclosures with some fencing but my dog was enjoying pulling out my discarded scraps and running off with them.
My solution was to build this enclosed rotating compost bin. I have read that the ability to rotate and mix the material would speed up the composting process. Time will tell.
The only cost to this was the broomstick running up the middle of the barrel and the deck screws I used to put everything together. Took me about 25 minutes to complete the build.
In case you are unfamiliar with composting or why I would do it. Composting provides an avenue to put rich, organic material back into the soil of my garden to feed nutrients to my plants.
Do you compost? If so, what method do you use?
Take care all –
Rourke
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I have 4 trash barrels partly buried in my yard to compost my Saint Bernard’s hefty piles. I don’t use the dog-compost for gardening since its not safe but I do spread it out in my yard because it is good for grass and flowers.
One barrel is usually ‘fresh’, a couple barrels are ‘processing’ and one barrel is complete. This lets me rotate with some flexibility through the Seasons (I’m in Michigan). I also added a few pounds of worms and after a few rotations I have a nice colony which gets rotated as well. They really speed up the process and create some great compost. Its a real difference in how it smells before and after…:)
Great minds… I made mine vertical but otherwise almost identical, even down to the door hardware. They’re 3 years old now, and still work great.
I use the buried trash can approach, too…drilling about 20 holes in two metal trash cans, leaving about 6″ exposed to get the lid on, a cinder block on top to defend against raccoons. Rotating two cans is enough for our family of four to handle all kitchen scraps. After the first season, the worms found the cans to the point where what I harvested was crawling with them. After six months, the remains often still tend to be a bit swampy-smelling, but ready for spreading out in the garden. A third buried can to allow longer decomposition would probably be a good idea.
We use the used pallet method. 5 pallets makes 2 bins that you can rotate material between. Cost…. 30 minutes, $1 worth of screws, 3 steel T-posts, some scrap lumber, and used bailing twine.