Last spring I decided I would build a compost bin in our back yard. Well, that was delayed by several things… our vacation to Seattle, my dad dying, and the construction of a privacy fence (see below) that ended up being a much bigger project than anticipated. So I finally got around to building this thing in October… a little late, maybe, but just in time for fall leaf-raking and with still plenty of time to get a good pile going before spring gardening.

Why the big bin? While it is true that you can compost by just throwing stuff (lawn trimmings, vegetable scraps, etc.) into a large pile and letting it sit there, that tends to get a little wind-scattered, hard to control or keep in one place, and can be rather, uh, “fragrant” and unsightly, not to mention you’re inviting every critter in your ‘hood to dig in it and drag it all away. Also, with a “cold pile” like that, you don’t mix and turn to maintain a target temperature. Sometimes it’s warm, sometimes it’s frozen, but usually it’s just at ambient air temperature. A pile like this will still decompose, yes, but it will take a lot longer to do so.

So what did I do instead? I collected some found lumber (found in my garage), spend $100 on some additional lumber and other materials (the most expensive item was the hardware cloth, so if you can “find” some of that without having to pay for it, more power to ya!), and I built a simple, sturdy compost bin over the course of a pleasant weekend in October. Buying the plastic ones seems to cost anywhere from $100 to $300. Tools used: Hammer, electric drill, and a handsaw.

Does it look big? It is. I wasn’t really sure what size to make it. All plans and instructions I found online recommended making it 3′x3′x3′, which would have left an awkward, unused space in that rear fenced-in section at the back of our yard. So, I made it slightly shorter and not as deep (roughly 33″) and made it about 4-1/2′ wide. So yeah, it’s nice and big and I load it up with all sorts of stuff like kitchen food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, newspaper, etc. I also bring home a bag of coffee grounds/filters and some food scraps from work every week. A couple of weeks ago someone handed me an entire bag of week-old bagels that had gone to waste, so I tossed them in, too. Bread and coffee grounds are nice “brown” ingredients for your compost mix.

Also, there is a lot of misinformation regarding adding dog and cat poop to your compost pile. I’ve read on more than a few websites that flat-out say it’s a big no-no if you plan on using the compost in a vegetable garden, but I’ve found out from some composting experts that IF you can get a hot compost pile and keep it hot for a couple weeks at a time, then you obviously know what you’re doing and can handle a little dog poop. We have one dog and one cat (they both poop in the back yard… MOST of the time), and I’ve been adding their droppings to my pile for the past month. I know it’s getting hot in there because I can SEE the steam coming from it when I turn it over on cold days (and I can smell an odor of ammonia, too). How do you get your pile “hot”? You make sure that you keep the mixture about half and half green vs. brown ingredients. That’s it.

Oh yeah, here’s what it looks like with the lid open:

In that pic you can see the wire mesh (“hardware cloth”) that I used to line the inside on all four sides plus the underside of the lid. That’s to help keep the crap in and the critters out.

By the way, all the wood was purchased specifically for this project EXCEPT for the four 4″x4″ posts and the planks on the top of the lid. That stuff was left over from our privacy fence project.

There are lots of different designs and plans that you can find on the Web for building your own. I just sorta made this one as simple and easy as I could. No, there is no door on the side for extracting the compost, and there aren’t separate compartments for the various stages or anything fancy like that. I’ll continue to add to the pile until February or so, and then I’ll have to shovel the stuff out in the spring… no big deal. But if I decide to replace the front side with a door to make extracting the pile easier, that won’t be that hard either, as I used deck screws to attach everything together and can just unscrew them later for that purpose. Also, it helps if you have a pitch fork of some kind to turn the compost once it’s in the bin. I have been turning it about once a week. You’re also supposed to keep it wet (damp like a wet sponge), so I open the lid and water it down a bit with the garden hose after I turn it.

There are a few more pics here.