Compost bin tutorial…kinda

By Pinktoesandpowertools | Woodworking Projects

Last year for my birthday I asked for a new compost bin built to my specs. This is what we had been living with for the last 8 years:

Compost bin before

If you can’t see it from the weeds, etc. it is a circle of some fencing we had held up with some of those green fence stakes. Amazingly horrible. And there are two in there.

I wanted a wooden structure with 3 bins. We used untreated 2x4s in 8′ lengths, and pine 2x6s (to get the height I wanted at the bottom because the fence we had to use wasn’t high enough) which I realize will eventually rot, but I don’t care to use pressure treated. I can’t give you a step-by-step, just the pictures in order. I didn’t have the blog yet when we built it, but the idea of a blog was floating around in the grey matter I own, so I did snap some pictures in case I ever did get around to a blog. But like I said, My Man literally pieced it together as we went along, if you don’t feel like you can make your own compost bin, you could have a look at wheelie bin storage from gardensite and have a look around their different products.

Lumber used for the frame (not including the removeable doors on the back)

Getting spacing right for the fence. I had some green plastic coated fencing leftover from other stuff that worked great.

Tin snips to cut the fence to size

Assembling one side

Where the dividers will go

Side connected to bottom

Another shot of side connected to bottom

At this point we carried it out to the garden because it was getting heavy. In order to get it pretty square, we built it on the concrete to this point.

Trying to get it level.

As we built, My Man checked that it was level and staight up and down.

We constructed the second side in place.

Now the end.

The ends

Adding fence to the middle sections

Putting fence into the end section

So far so good–still needs doors

Now in real life, it sat like this for awhile. I discovered Ana White, bought a Kreg Jig, and decided to add the removable doors I was envisioning. I used 2×4’s for the frame put together with pocket screws, and used scrap wood and a screw to hold them in place:

Supplies for doors

These doors are completely removable. Just turn the scrap wood at each corner and take it out.

View from the front. I planted decorative grass in front. The weeds are filling in nicely in the garden area.

View from the back with the doors all on

Compost ready to be taken out! My container is a rubbermaid canister. I keep it under the sink and we generally have to empty it once a day or every other day.

My Man thought it was funny (but not surprising–after all, we’ve been married for 17 years this week–not much surprises us anymore!) that I wanted a compost bin for my birthday present. Fit me perfectly though 🙂 That bin is almost a year old now. I still love it.

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