How to Build a Free Compost Bin

How to build a compost bin for free by garden author Doug Green at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/compost.html for other articles about compost and compost tea.




Modern research on using compost and compost tea has been promoted extensively in the garden press and blogs and there are a few things that might help you understand what is good science here and what is maybe not-so-good.

The first thing to understand is that compost is used for two reasons. Organic matter and the microorganisms that live in this organic matter.

You can substitute peat moss for the organic matter (or other organic material) but the microorganisms are the lifeblood of the soil and you need these. Luckily, they are mostly already in a healthy soil and compost / organic matter gives them something to eat so they can multiply and work with our plants.

Where we sometimes get into difficulty is in believing that these microorganisms are the magic bullet that a gardener can put onto the garden to solve all their problems. Let me give you an example. There are some garden writers who suggest that making up a compost tea and spraying this on leaves will kill fungal problems. This "may" be true if the specific microorganism that attacks that specific fungus is in the tea but obviously not true if the microorganism is missing from the tea. All compost tea is not created equally. It may be that this microorganism doesn't appear until later in the season until after there is a good supply of fungus for it to eat - so the claim to being able to prevent or kill off the fungus problem is one of timing. Or production. There are reports that show how compost tea is made - the physical properties of the aeration - can influence the final population of microorganisms. I point these things out to show that it's not just a cut and dried kind of thing.

In my garden world, I make and use compost tea about once a month over my entire garden. In this way, I hope to get the beneficial microorganisms onto the garden when the time is right and they may be appearing naturally in the garden. At the very least, I make myself feel I'm doing something positive for my plants and this may all by itself be worth the effort :-)

But making a free compost bin itself is a good thing to do - you can compost almost any organic matter your property produces and return it to the garden. Check out my garden blog at http://www.douggreensgarden.com/garden-blog.html

Category:

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• compost
• bin
• organic
• gardening
• composting
• tea
• tumbler
• composter

[aureata1]

Wish I had seen this video before I laid out over $400.00 for one of those big double tumbling bin types. However, I have it now and my husband refuses to save the cut grass and raked leaves to put in it. How do I convince him to do this simple thing and stop buying all that suspicious top soil and mulch that someone hauls in on a truck and it is dried out when it comes?

[headgardener2u]

@aureata1 hmmm, how do you convince a husband... of anything? :-) Top soil is expensive. I use a lot of peat moss and compost & compost tea to beef up the soil fertility in my gardens. I only buy in soil if I need to build raised beds

[MAGTRAIN]

@aureata1 buying compost can come from different sources, sometimes it was once contaminated soil, maybe with heavy metals etc. it has since gone through "bioremidiation" i think you are always better off making your own compost since you know exactly what went into it

[headgardener2u]

@MAGTRAIN you're right of course. Doing this relatively simple thing is a good first step to having a healthy soil and a healthy garden. And the benefits of both go beyond our own lives.  :-)

[jitkyta]

good idea!!!!!!! I saw some free pallets on craig list ;o)))))

[headgardener2u]

@jitkyta - I get mine from behind some of the big box store construction stores like Lowes and Home Depot. Always lots of freebies out back

[gjoshi1964]

@freqeist Yeah, so true .... :)

[jimbuckleybarrett]

@aureata1 How to convince the husband - SEX - if he doesn't compost no sex! :) I bet he be composting very quickly after that :)

[freqeist]

one tip is before you start putting your waste in cover the bottom with compost, it `kick-starts` it off and enables creatures like worms enter the waste easier.

[cpflaumer]

@headgardener2u Good idea! I'm going free shopping to my local Lowes & HD! :D

[cpflaumer]

Wow! So easy & cheap. I have about 4 or 5 of those pallets and did not know what to do with them. Now I know I can easily build a wooden composters for nothing but some fasteners, and start vermicomposting in a flash. I'm so glad I saw this. THANKS for the idea.

[lsophial]

I have a black , plastic compost container given here by the Municipality.It is closed almost no sun, and it takes too long to decompose the raw material. I managed to take a few kg of the soil last spring to fertilize my rose garden. Soon after i noticed that i had hundreds of Tomatoes and peppers plants! I transplanted many of them and i have 6 variety of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, Italian tomatoes, etc.

[WhatTheHeo]

Interesting using 4 pallets for a compost pile. *thumbs up*

[arkansastrash320]

@aureata1 HaHa a nonbelevier well my advice would be if you pass alot of baged up leaves in front of peoples houses grab it and put it in your composter and you mow the yard and save the grass.All i can tell you.There are so many bags of leaves sitting on the curb its a shame that its not turned into compost.how ever our city says it compost all the leaves not sure i believe them Thanks