Compost compost... help me please.

[Munki'sMom]

We are really interested in starting a compost pile. I've gotten replies saying to just build your own bin. I'm still a little confused. How do I turn it when its made out of crates? (whatever those things are called. lol Forklift things. lmao) Does anyone have a website to share? I just can't get a visual of it. Anyone have a picture of their own to share? Thank you

[Abarat]

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/sw_soi...270574,00.html

Here's some info on building one. Ours is made from palates, but we didn't put a top on ours. Sure, rodents get in, like squirrels and such, but I figure they're eating our birdseed anyways, and there's plenty of kitchen scraps to go around!

We turn our compost with this type of tool: http://cleanairgardening.com/cotuto.html

It's nice and easy to use.

Hope this helps!

[kerc]

ours has one side that's removeable. we don't turn much (but we do turn occasionally with a 10 dollar pitchfork).

[lillian]

ours is right on the ground without any structure around it. we turn it with a pitchfork.

[mgilleran@earth-co]

Originally Posted by lillian

ours is right on the ground without any structure around it. we turn it with a pitchfork.

That is what my grandma did for 50 years. She just had a corner against the fence near her garden. Each night we dumped the days scraps out there. They would turn it with a hoe, but I don't know how often. Worked great. I plan to build a makeshift one out of pallets after we finish our house.

[KariM]

I don't have a website to share and I'll try to remember to take pics of ours if you need them.

But - DH just bought some of those metal fence stakes (used for electric fences, etc) and some heavy duty wire fencing (can't remember what it's called. He built a row of three bins with the fencing. It's kinda like three U's side by side upside down. Or you could call it three squares with the fronts open. For ease of filling, etc we left the fronts open.

Ideally, we'd be rotating from bin to bin to mix, but lazy folks we are, they hardly ever get turned. It eventually composts, just takes a lot longer.

[lightheart]

we have an official wood bin, built out of junk non pressure treated lumber, we left gaps at the bottom and do the lazy way compost, pile it up and just let it sit, sometimes we will pull out from the bottom where the slats are open during the growing season. each spring we empty it, shovel or pitchfork and get the nice dirt out to spread around and just pile the bigger stuff back in. we also have piles here and there around the garden and fall cleanup we move whats left in those piles into the compost bin.

[KimProbable]

We just put ours together this past weekend out of old palates. My parents were kind enough to cut them to size for us and DH just drilled the pieces together. Two palates are 4 feet long and they're attached at the corners to two pieces 2 feet long. There's another 2 foot section in the middle (parallel to the end pieces) dividing the bin in two.

We don't have a removable piece to open it up, but I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to work around that. We still have to pick up a pitchfork.