Composter

Nice work. Yes, any time I’ve ever rebuilt a compost surround, I’ve been fortunate enough to have enough room to pick a new spot.. Good lesson learned.

-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX

great job!
I like the angled slats.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

A quick question about compost. Can you use sawdust in the compost pile? I ask this becouse I was thinking of ways to use my sawdust other than throwing it over the hill.

-- F.Little

I don’t think saw dust would be good for a compost pile. It tends to feed off the nitrogen and pretty much use it all up. There’s been lots of posts about this you you’d like to search it. Nice job on the bins. Lots of stuff that goes in the trash can be turned to black gold. If you don’t think this stuff works, try it for a year or so.

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

Pretties compost pile I ever saw.

-- Ron Central, CA

Looks like a good solution, and probably made that corner of the yard a better place (except in the dog’s opinion of course).

Gotta love your signature…

-- "Skol, Vikings"

Despite the research on sawdust in the compost bin, I do dump mine in. As large a pile as I have, I can’t imagine it’s depriving it of all the available nitrogen. That, and keeping it turned is a big part of composting. If you do that, I have to imagine that you’re able to keep a better mixture of chemical ingredients.

-- It takes a viking to raze a village. &mdash Blog'r: http://www.gradin.com

Skål, Dean!

-- It takes a viking to raze a village. &mdash Blog'r: http://www.gradin.com

i wonder if there would be a way to plant some nitrogen fixing plants around the sides and back? Just something that popped into my head.

Olaf, I’m just wondering what your dog likes so much in the compost? When my dogs get a chance to get close to mine, they love to sniff around and dig some, but I’ve never seen them eating anything out of the pile.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I use one third sawdust in my compost bin. Been doing it for years. Works fine.

-- Bruce from Central New York

very nice…I need to build one…and this looks just like one I saw in a magazine article that was sent to me…great job on it…

Did the plan call for such a depth in the posts or did you just decide to sink them that far…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

@ juniorjock: My dog eats apples and grapes, so she’s good for anything she can scavenge. I’m not really sure what she eats out of there. She may just role in the bugs or something, but she tends to stink afterward!

@ Napaman: The plan did call for the depth. You could build it stationary as I did, or portable with some slight modifications (albeit less digging).

-- It takes a viking to raze a village. &mdash Blog'r: http://www.gradin.com

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

Ideally, make layers of materials such as a woody, dry layer (newsprint, which has soy ink these days) or dry leaves, woodchips or sawdust, and a green layer such as food waste, green plants, etc. Continue to build in layers. Depending on climate, you might or might not really need to turn. Also depending on whether or not you want to compost hot or not. If it’s dry, you might want to slightly dampen each layer with a sprinkle of water. But in the end, no matter what you do it will probably turn out fine in the long run.

-- "That which has in itself the greatest use, possesses the greatest beauty." - Unknown Shaker

everyone needs a hobby I haven’t too much strength to do much gardening these days but my neighbour helps me lots good luck with your compost heap regards Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Great compost pile plans…i have beeb looking for something like this as mine is just two lengths of chicken wire wrapped into a circle.

Oh and by the waystrong> DO NOT LET YOUR DOG EAT GRAPES!!!!

“Grapes and raisins have been linked to renal failure in dogs.”

:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp That’s bad!

-- POST NUBILA SOL - After clouds sunshine

I don’t think my dog would eat raisins or grapes!

At any rate, my composter was just what yours is now until the upgrade. The wire kept getting crushed down as I lobbed things off a second-floor deck into the pit. As throwing things off the deck was part of the attraction of the compost’s placement, I had to reinforce it. That, and the creatures were tearing up the thin wire both from below and above. More than once, I pegged a opossum with refuse!

Gradin.com: Be Kind to Wild Animals

-- It takes a viking to raze a village. &mdash Blog'r: http://www.gradin.com