I'm the first to admit that this compost bin is nothing fancy. I needed a compost solution fast (and cheap!), so I made a compost bin with two store-bought materials and three tools. Here's how:
Because of the wire construction, air will flow through this easily giving the compost plenty of room to breathe. This cost me a total of $35 and took only 20 minutes to complete. Then I ceremoniously dumped in my first round of food scraps and covered it up with grass cuttings: let the composting begin!
Materials
Welded Wire Fencing (a roll of 48" x 50' ran us about $25 at Lowe's)
2-4 5-foot T-posts
5-10 pieces of wire, approximately 5" long (can be improvised)
Tools
Wire cutters
Gloves
Pliers
Instructions
1. Select the area for your compost bin. Clear the space and make sure there's room for you to work.
2. Place the first T-post where desired, making it as straight as possible.
3. Wrap the end of the roll of fencing around the first T-post, securing it tightly.
4. Loosen the roll of wire so that it's easier to work with.
5. Decide how big you want to make your compost bin and using that approximation, place the second T-post. (Repeat step 5 if you are using additional T-posts.)
6. Snip the wire roll so that you do not have any sharp ends on your compost bin.
7. Making a complete circle with the fencing, secure the wire to itself (or the first T-post) with pieces of wire, using the pliers to twist the ends shut. (We used pieces of wire that had been used to hold the fencing together.)
8. Toss in your food scraps and call it a day!
(Image: Amber Byfield for Re-Nest)
(Re-edited from a post originally published on 6.21.2010 - CM)
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You realize you are inviting rats, possum, and raccoons too?
Yes, I was going to say that, too. I made mine (several years ago) in a similar manner, but put it on top of an old pallet (part of an old swingset, actually), and put screening on the bottom to keep out rodents. It's still working fine, and we have had no raccoons, even though we live in on the edge of a huge pasture and woods with lots of critters.
@laffcat: We're pretty far inland, so this should do the general composting trick. An occasional visitor is sure to stop by—but our barking dog has kept the cats from using the yard as a litter box, so hopefully she'll do the trick with any other vermin! It was a cheap and quick fix, so we know it's not perfect. Fingers crossed though!
@Peggasus: bringing it up off the ground is a great idea--and since it's not permanent, we can lift it up at some point to make similar modifications. Thanks for the tip!
I say let the vermin come. Feeding our cats outside and feeding birds brings more vermin that any of our various composting methods ever has.
If the wire is attached to the posts, how will you be able to move it to turn the pile? I don't think the posts are necessary.
I used to have a standard black plastic composter, sold by my County. Rats chewed a hole through it. Just recently, I acquired a 30 gal. barrel, used a hole saw to allow a galvanized pipe to go through, made a frame using 2 X 4's, then used screw-on end caps on the pipe. I now have a
cheap version of a compost tumbler - off the ground, and so far, vermin-free!! It's also quite portable, should that become necessary.
I live in an area with a lot of raccoons and they have never bothered my black plastic composter. Not sure why--I've seen them opening the neighbors' garbage cans! But maybe that's why, come to think of it.
My father, who was a truly great gardener, made his compost in a wire tower like this one. He just unrolled part of the chicken wire to dig it out, and then re-attached it. I am pretty sure he staple gunned it to the frame (his was made of tree limbs he cut up).
Friends of mine in the UK with a sizeable property had their compost in a large open, free-standing pile, behind a stand of tall buddleia bushes. But no raccoons there, just hedgehogs...(cute)
Rodents won't be a problem unless you put the wrong things in your compost pile. Fruits and veggies, cofffee grinds, etc. Make sure you have the right C:N ratio and it will smell like pine needles, like soil, not food. We have a black plastic composter but I worry about the plastic leeching into the soil. I worry this one pictured would be hard to stir.
(sorry, meant to say: no meat or cheese!)
In our county you can get the black pastic roll (which will result in something similar to the post) for free. But, you are not supposed to put food scraps into it- only yard trim. This year I took a plastice trashcan with a screw-on top, drilled holes all over, and made that into my compost bin. I just roll it on the ground to mix. I only started a couple weeks ago, but it seems to be working alright so far.
We live in a small city and have one like that pictured above, as well as a black plastic composter. We use them for fruit/veggie, garden, and yard waste. In the 3 years we've had them, we haven't had any problems with rodents (there aren't too many around here other than rabbits and squirrels, anyway) or cats. And we've had usable compost out of them both.
The plastic bin composts faster, but you have to water it more often and stirring it through the small mouth of the bin is rather difficult. The open wire one composts more slowly and doesn't get hot enough to kill weed seeds and fungal infections, so you have to be careful what you put in it. But it is easy to turn with a pitchfork and is VERY low maintenance. Having the composts has cut our garbage significantly, and makes gardening cheaper since we always have our own material to amend the soil.
We use something like this for our leaves in the fall. We have a leaf blower/chopper thing, so we suck them up in that, deposit them in the leaf stack, corralled in a fence. By spring we have some nice soil conditioner to add to the garden beds.
I applaud anyone who does any type of composting. It's reduces the garbage stream and feeds the soil.
After having been a composter for a long time, If you have a good carbon/nitrogen ratio it keeps the smell down and very few pests come in. Bury scraps rather than just putting them on top of the pile. Also, nothing greasy, no meat, no dairy EVER in the compost pile (bad for the beneficial bacteria that break it down, bad for worms and lures rodents).
Recently in a permaculture class, I mentioned a fear of similar pests in my new neighborhood (plus I have skunks that dig up the grass for worms and grubs) and she suggested planting a pot of catnip in a corner not far from the compost to lure some neighborhood cats to visit and guard the perimeter for me - not a terrible idea! Hopefully the scent of cat would provide a deterrent to rodents. Works for me - as long as they don't turn the yard into a litterbox or that there isn't a cat vs. skunk showdown outside my window one night! I'm taking the gamble!
We used one like this for yard waste only when I was growing up in our tiny back yard in NYC. We had a wild box turtle that over wintered in it every year!
I don't bother with all the bins & fencing type composting. For years now all I do is take each days kitchen scraps & dig a hole with a small shovel in my designated compost area & dump the scraps in & fill it back in. Each day I just dig another hole next to the previous day's hole. I go back & forth in rows about 4 feet wide by 6 feet long. I also put in the grass clipping & other compostable yard debris Every couple of days I turn the whole thing over, chop up the soil with the shovel blade, & start again from the beginning. I also water it with gray water from my dish washing pans. I get some good healthy (& interesting) sproutings coming up & I transplant those stronger ones that I am able to identify into my garden area. Anything that dies off I simply turn back into the compost area. Periodically I scoop up a few shovels full of healthy soil from the compost area & work it into my garden. No fencing around the compost area means critters are more likely to nibble on the compost sproutings rather than bother to dig under the fencing around the garden. I've been doing this method for so long & I have successful veggie gardens every year. Because of this method I NEVER have to buy seeds (I save the seeds from my crops) or "starter" plants from the nursery. All that bin nonsense was just too much work for me. You can tell that I'm a lazy gardener, but I grow enough every year to keep me happy.
If you don't have yard space, there is now an indoor composter available that uses earthworms and is actually cute. It's called the City Bin. They are raising money on IndieGoGo now to go into production. I got one and can't wait to get it!
Here is the IndieGoGo site http://igg.me/p/84405/x/273821