Compost is recycled from leaves, vegetables, and other food scraps. It gives nutrients to plants so if you’re trying to maintain a garden, you’ll need some. You can create compost on an empty area where you can pile up the leaves and food scrap to become compost.
However, if you want to hasten the decomposition of the compost materials, it is best that you house it in a compost bin.
How to make your own compost bin
You can make your own compost bin using various materials but the best material to use is a wooden pallet.
Wooden pallet would be a good choice because it is easy to find and cheap.
To make your wooden pallet compost bin, just follow these steps:
• Prepare your materials. You will need the following materials to construct your wooden pallet compost bin
o 4 wooden pallets of the same size with IPPC or EPAL stamp and make sure it has HT letters signifying that has been heat treated
o 4 corner brackets
o 4 hinges
o Box of screws
o 2 pairs of hook and eye latches
o 2 plate brackets (optional)
o Rebar to stabilize your compost bin
• Create a back and side portion by joining three pallets.
• Lean the three pallets against each other and keep them together using the corner brackets.
• Flush the two sidewalls with the width of the back wall.
• Place 2 brackets on each sidewall, one near the top and the other near the bottom.
• You should be able to form a U shape-standing wall.
• The fourth pallet will be your compost bin door. The door will make it easy for you to fill the compost bin.
• Cut the fourth wall in half by cutting the rear and front slat to make an even cut.
• Using two hinges, attached the bottom door from the outside so that it can swing wider. Make sure you raise the bottom door up a bit to keep it from catching.
• Attached the top door with 2 hinges, making sure you leave a small gap between the top and bottom doors.
• Place the latches near the top of each door.
• Screw the plate brackets at the rear corners of the bin to make it more sturdy
• Secure the bin by anchoring a rebar on each side of the walls, jamming it into position
• You are ready to start composting
It is important to keep choose the right location for your compost bin. Before you start making one, choose your location.
Look for an area that is dry and sunny. Your compost bin must be able to decay the compost fast.
How to keep it rodent-free and bear-free
You compost bin is filled with mixture of leaves, cardboards, fresh greens and kitchen scraps. This will make it attractive to rodents and bears.
To keep them away, you can follow these simple tips:
• Wrap your wooden pallet compost bin with a wire mesh and place a tarp cover on top. The tarp cover will also seal in the heat, hastening the composting process
• Keep the smell away from your compost. Do not add fish bones, leftover food, oil, meat, eggshells, and large size fruits in your compost. Stick with fresh green scraps and browns.
• Layer your compost in even proportions of greens and browns. With every layer of green food scraps add a layer of brown leaves and torn cardboards
• Keep the compost moist. Not too dry for it to slow down the composting process and not to wet to allow it to smell.
• Add lime or charcoal ash to keep the smell away.
A note of warning
It is important that you set up your compost bin properly from the start.
If your compost bin has a history of being ransacked, there is a higher chance that rodents and bears will pay a visit again.
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