How to Make a Compost Bin

Homemade compost bins are surprisingly easy to make and are a great way to produce nutritious compost for your garden.

Compost is perfect for vegetable growing.

Composting kitchen and garden waste is a great way to recycle waste that would otherwise end up in landfills, while also producing a natural fertilizer for your garden. Composting is very straightforward and is a simple step towards greener living.

The process of making compost is very easy. It is simply a case of allowing organic matter, such as vegetable peelings, grass clippings, egg shells, coffee grounds and a wide variety of other items, to decompose. When it has all decomposed, the remaining compost can be used as a soil enhancer. While making a compost pile is very straightforward, many people like to use a compost bin. This helps to keep the garden or yard neat and tidy while also ensuring that the compost is kept in optimum conditions. A compost pile may dry out or pieces of compost may blow around the garden, so a compost bin will be a worthwhile investment. An alternative to buying a compost bin is to build your own. This has two distinct advantages. It is obviously cheaper to build your own bin and you can use recycled materials. It also means that you can build a bin that is tailor made for your garden and meets your own requirements.

A homemade compost bin can be created from a wide variety of materials. Old pieces of wood and wire netting are ideal for making a homemade compost bin. Compost bins are best sited in the shade. Compost needs to be damp and at a relatively constant temperature, therefore a corner of your garden will be fine. Because compost bins are generally positioned in a corner of a garden and away from the house, functionality is more important than aesthetics. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a useful compost guide that looks in detail at all aspects of home composting.

Here are some things to consider when you are building your own compost bin:

• Convenience – if the compost bin is to be well used, then siting it so that it is relatively convenient to access is important. People will not want to traipse across a muddy patch of garden to place waste in the compost bin, therefore it is also useful to ensure that there is a path leading to it.
• Smell – a well maintained compost bin should not smell. However, this is an obvious concern that many people have, therefore siting the compost bin away from the house will help to dispel any fears.
• Materials – be careful of the materials that you use to build your compost bin. Some wood, for instance, may have been treated with harsh chemicals or painted with paint containing lead. Old pieces of recycled wood can also have nails and screws embedded in it, therefore be careful when handling and cutting old wood.

Building a compost bin and making your own compost is a simple way to help the environment. Even if you have no need for the finished compost, you are bound to have plenty of neighbors who are keen gardeners or local organizations who will be pleased to take it from you. Home produced compost is much cheaper than buying fertilizer or soil nutrients and is an important way of reducing the amount of waste that is placed in landfills.

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