I made a 3 bay compost bin in an hour! I was tired of struggling with the plastic cylinder types that I have, so got busy making my own. I posted an ad for 7 pallets on our town's local website. I got a slew of responses. Who knew that everyone has 1 or 2 pallets behind their garage that they are eager to get rid of? One man was so happy to dispose of his, that he offered to drop 7 off in his pick up truck. (He joked about how happy his wife would be). So, I set up the 7 pallets upright and tied them together with zip ties. Looking from above, they are in the shape of a capital 'E' with a fourth leg on the 'E'. Very easy. I like the arrangement because the three bays are open to the front, making it easy to dump wheelbarrow loads into the bays, and also making it very accessible to turn the compost with a pitch fork. You would have seen this design if you have gone to any nursery or public garden. I think the 3 bay arrangement is standard. I guess the idea is that you fill up the left and right bays first, then when time comes to turn the compost, you dump both into the middle bay. I would post photos, but I still find that process difficult.
I keep wanting to make something similar for my compost pile, as it is currently just an open mound. This spring I pounded in some posts and attached some wire fencing to keep it contained, but while I was doing that I was thinking about how nice it would be to have pallets and make 3 sections. How did you secure your pallets? Are they just zip tied together or do you have posts to hold it in place?
Pallets are very easy to come by as stated. They are one of our favorite sources of fire pit wood. Pictures are tricky to load but the link Frank posted is the way to go. It's easyu for me as usually the picture I wanna post is already on our blog that way I can coppy and paste the picture or if there is more than one give yall the link.
Netty--Yes I just zip-tied them together. The pallets are quite heavy & tend to just stay put. I was all out of extra large zip-ties, so I just zip-tied some larges ones together to make them long enough.
Frank, thanks for trying to help me. I tried your method. The problem is that my pictures are always too large. I don't remember how to re-size theme (Sydney kindly told me, but I have forgotten.) But in any case I find it very time consuming......Could you recommend a camera that I could buy so I wouldn't have to re-size the photos?
Ok. Frank has kindly sent me some help with photos....and my husband has kindly interpreted his help! So here goes....fingers crossed.... Take one messy compost pile (free form) Add 7 free pallets.... Get out your trusty zip ties...... And VOILA! a respectable 3 bay compost bin!!! And here is the first bay, rapidly filling up! That's all folks...
I like it, CM; I like it a lot... I think that I may attempt to emulate your efforts on the compost bins... Hank
Good luck Hank. Once I had all the materials, it took me less than an hour to put it together. If you go to any public garden or large nursery, they all have these three bay compost bins. The idea is that you fill up the left bin first, then the right. Once the outer two have reduced in size through partial decomposition, you pitch fork both piles into the middle bin for finishing, then start the process all over again, filling up the left bin. Good luck! Let me know how it goes.
UPDATE to my 3 bay compost bin: I have been getting coffee grounds all summer long from a local coffee café. It has been a win all around: I get the grounds for my compost heap, they don't have to schlep the grounds out to the garbage bin & the grounds get put to good use! Anyway, I just took a look at the grounds (plus amendments) that I put in the 1st bay. Good rich compost!!! Beautiful stuff!!
Hiya Cayuga. I am sorry that I missed this thread because I really like it. Those piccies that you included are super. It was good that you posted the follow-up. It is always nice to hear how things go. Chapeau Donna!
Oooh, nice bin! I'm glad it's working for you. Now I wish I had the room to put up a bin arrangement like yours.
