Well it's been a long time between posts but I have been very busy - both at work and around the house. Most of my time has been spent creating a chook-house for our new chickens - more on that in my next post. I thought I would make a quick post as to how I made a 2-bay compost bin for next to nix.
Start with these wooden pallets. I was lucky enough to get them for free from a business that I do some work for. They were going to take them to the tip anyway - so I saved them on tip fees! I was out driving on Saturday and actually saw a big stack in the car park of a business on a main road. It might pay off to go in and ask if any are available. Often time they are simply not needed once the goods are unloaded.
These ones are different sizes but that worked well for me as I placed the bins on a slight slope. As you can see, I placed them in the basic configuration of how the bins would look. In the end, I used the sides with the most slats to the inside to provide more stability. I used the palette with the most slats on both sides in the middle so it could withstand pressure from compost on both sides.
Here we hammered on some weed matting which is available from hardware, gardening stores and even crazy clarks. We used u-nails to hold it on . Not sure on the longevity of this but will report back. This weed matting will of course stop the soil going between the slats of the pallets.
Here you can see me standing up the pallets. We placed them adjoining a face to give them some more support. In front you can see the compost pile we already had. It has always been a mess with everything from the garden just piling up there. What you can't see in the photo is the larger sections of tree limbs and branches I took to the dump as I don't have a mulcher.
Hey presto. Its a 2 bay compost bin. As you can see the pallets are attached to one another. We did this by pre-drilling and attaching with hex head exterior timber screws. There are 3 star pickets that you can see beside each wall. These hold the sides in place. I drove a few short screws through the timber and into them to hold them. The smaller pallet was used on the higher ground and they all joined up at the top, leaving some small gaps at the back. A few rocks were placed under the walls in parts to fill these gaps as the ground was uneven.
All that compost mix you saw in the second photo is now in the bin and ready for a much faster breakdown process. What was spread over 4 metres is now only 1 metre cubed. The pipe you can see in the pic is just some plumbing pvc. 90mm I think. It allows air to reach the centre of the compost allowing it to break down faster. A little trick I learnt online. The mix will be getting a turn in a few weeks and some garden waste and vegie scraps to eat. As the compost breaks down at the bottom I think I will move the humus rich ready compost to the other bin. Otherwise I might try two bins at once. We will see in future updates.
The amount of cool bugs that live in that mix is just amazing. I saw plenty of witchety grubs and even an iridescent green millipede.
Checklist:
5 pallets
12 hex head screws (50mm-100mm depending on the thickness of the timber in the palettes)
3 star pickets 1.4-2m (2-3 more if you don't put it against a fence and want to support the rear wall)
6 self-tapping timber screws (to attach to star pickets)
120 u-nails (approx.) to attach weed matting
16 metres of weed matting doubled over (ours came in a 20 metres pack for $12)
So there you have it - took about 4 hours in total although we had a few false starts working it all out. An awesome large compost bin almost for free. Hope you have luck making one too as having a good supply of compost is essential to improving your soil and growing food for your family! Until next time.. remember...
Keep Smiling!