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Composter

Project by Olaf Gradin posted 443 days ago 629 views 7 times favorited 18 comments Add to Favorites Watch

I have maintained a growing heap of compost in the back yard for a few years now. I had originally simply fenced off an area of 16 square feet with plastic chicken wire and T-Posts. Our dog was able to get in under the fence pretty easily to scavenge some tasty morsels out of the stinkin’ pile. I finally took a weekend to build a proper composting bin just recently.

I got the plans out of an outdoor projects magazine I had laying around. It’s essentially just a very small fenced in area with removable slats. I buried the posts 2’ (post-hole digging isn’t exactly a party) while keeping them [mostly] plumb and squared to each other. Then it’s a matter of attaching the rail and dropping 45° angled slats in. The hardest part of the whole project was digging holes. The next hardest was avoiding the grand diversity of creatures that had made this pile their home. Hornets, yellow jackets, and creepy-crawlies were abundant among them. It was the watermelon I threw in the heap that attracted so many hornets. A note to those that might try this project, you’re perhaps better off building it on fresh ground rather than attempting to build it around pre-existing compost!

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


18 comments so far

View RobS's profile

RobS

1231 posts in 1185 days


posted 443 days ago

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

View MsDebbieP's profile

MsDebbieP

14096 posts in 1039 days


posted 443 days ago

great job!
I like the angled slats.

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

View woodnut's profile

woodnut

269 posts in 931 days


posted 443 days ago

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

View juniorjock's profile

juniorjock

788 posts in 644 days


posted 443 days ago

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.

View RAH's profile

RAH

414 posts in 756 days


posted 442 days ago

Pretties compost pile I ever saw.

-- Ron Central, CA

View Dean's profile

Dean

44 posts in 455 days


posted 442 days ago

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"

View Olaf Gradin's profile

Olaf Gradin

61 posts in 718 days


posted 442 days ago

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

View Olaf Gradin's profile

Olaf Gradin

61 posts in 718 days


posted 442 days ago

Skål, Dean!

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

View HokieMojo's profile

HokieMojo

1136 posts in 607 days


posted 439 days ago

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.

View juniorjock's profile

juniorjock

788 posts in 644 days


posted 439 days ago

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.

View brunob's profile

brunob

1465 posts in 1048 days


posted 439 days ago

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

-- Bruce from Central New York

View Napaman's profile

Napaman

3421 posts in 956 days


posted 439 days ago

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...

View Olaf Gradin's profile

Olaf Gradin

61 posts in 718 days


posted 439 days ago

@ 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

View thetimberkid's profile

thetimberkid

1944 posts in 582 days


posted 437 days ago

Great job!

Thanks for the post

Callum

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

View Will Mego's profile

Will Mego

200 posts in 591 days


posted 381 days ago

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

View SCOTSMAN's profile

SCOTSMAN

2229 posts in 464 days


posted 381 days ago

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

View woodbutcherer's profile

woodbutcherer

30 posts in 334 days


posted 272 days ago

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

View Olaf Gradin's profile

Olaf Gradin

61 posts in 718 days


posted 271 days ago

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

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