This weekend I finished my first ever carpentry project: a wooden compost bin. I have a black plastic bin, but it's full and the compost isn't finished. It was the perfect opportunity to build my own bin, something I've been wanting to do for a while. I wanted to build a bin that allowed for easy turning of the compost, since my goal this year is to make a lot of compost fast, which requires a lot of turning according to my research. I found this plan on a gardening blog. The compost bin has four stacking tiers. When the compost bin in full and ready to be turned, the first tier is taken off the pile and set on the ground beside the bin. Then the compost is shovelled into the new location, re-stacking the tiers as you go.
Building the bin was interesting - it took me an entire four day weekend to gather the tools and materials, mostly because I didn't use power tools and didn't have the right materials. The first 30 or so screws were monumentally difficult to screw in, resulting in a lot of swearing and whining and blistered hands. Finally my boyfriend piped in that he's a screw expert, since he used to work at a screw factory (who knew?) and I was using the wrong kind of screw. The new wood screws worked much better than whatever I had found on the floor of my shed.
Here are the plans if you like. I used cedar lumber, which cost about $50. If you can find free scrap wood, this plan could be adjusted to whatever lumber you have.
