"we put all of our garbage, except meat, oily stuff, glossy news paper blah blah and we get great material for the garden, by the truck loads." I am a guy, really? I can find the garbage can about 70% of the time, but now I have trash, wet compost (veggies), dry compost (news paper) and don't forget the recycables, but not tin cans (that's a whole different blog). O.K. I will try to save money, and am willing to try anything once. Now we have been using an idea that was found on Pintrest, with some major modifications. As posted earlier, with the raised garden beds we are constructing boxes which are about 30" high, and 50" long. The compost bins are about 60" wide, 50"high and 30"deep. Now what I know about compost piles is very limited but once again the Internet is a great teacher.
The First thing you need to do is construct the box. Not including leveling the ground, this step should take about 10 minutes (really I am not kidding). After finding a fairly level spot, and with the assistance of someone one, stand your side and back panel up. Using either 90 degree corner plates or straight board menders (or even a combination of the two) connect the pallets. Experience has shown that pre drilling the holes help a lot, because the pallets can be constructed of any wood, or combination of woods. Once the first corner is done it becomes easier. Take your second pallet that will be used on the back and attach it to the first using 2 board menders. Don't worry if it is not 100% flush, or perfect, remember it is holding materials for compost. Now comes a little trickey thing. We wanted to divide this bin into two seperate bins so we took two pallets and put them back to back and attached them to the back wall. The goal is to keep this project inexpensive, so I did not use any extra lumber, we basically split the difference and moved along. Now we placed the other pallet on the outside wall and attached it using board menders The next step was the moment of truth, we took two pallets (one in each bin) and for a reason still unknown to me they fit. This step according to my wife is very important, it allows for air flow underneath the 'stuff'. Because these will be in contact with the 'product' securing them seemed silly because they will need to be replaced. The engineer changed the specs at the last minute, and instead of putting hinges on the door we 'lashed' them shut, allows for greater access to all this compost we will be getting.
My wife read about a way to turn stuff into compost in 21-28 days, and the key is air. So now comes a little expense, We went to our local home center and bought 8 10ft pieces of 1" PVC pipe. Have stress at this point? Now is the time you get to release it, using a large drill bit make lots of holes, for air movement. I created a guide, just to give me a more stable working surface. Try to remember, this is about function and fun, exact measurments are not important as long as there are lots of holes. After drilling holes I took my battery operated 'saws all' to the 'site' and cut the PVC to fit inside the boxes. These Pipes make a checker board and will compress as the stuff turns into 'dirt'. The last picture shows how they are set in. Karen now has the job of 'filling the bins. I will keep you updated on how this stuff works, it will either work great, OR I will be inviting my friends over for a hell of a bon fire.
If folks want specifications, or easy to follow directions please feel free to e-mail me, and unless I have been buried by the truck loads of compost, I will get them to you.
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