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Compost bay
Birdy13
Posts: 595
I wanted to do this for some time as I hated the idea of my garden's stored energy ending up at the municipal tip.
As you can see it is still work in progress (just one big bay) but I had to start using it straightaway as I had too much garden refuse to delay any longer.
The structure you can see so far is 2.7 metres long by 1 metre from front to back and a metre high. It is designed to fit an existing area of the garden where nothing much grows due to an overhanging pine tree - not ideal but better than not using the area at all.
The basic structure is simple: treated 8" x 1" planks screwed to 3" x 3" treated posts. I discovered that modern technology in making screws has created something called 'cutting screws' - they cut their way into the timbers without needing to drill first. Most builders will have known these for years it seems, but I'm not a builder! It's essential to use cross headed (eg Pozidrive) screws to avoid them slipping off the screwdriving drill bit.
At the moment there is only one big bay, which is just as well as I need the space to mix up all the 'greens' and 'browns' I've accumulated in my Dalek type bins.
The next stage will be to create 3 bays with sliding plank dividing walls so each bay can be separate or 2 made into one to enable the heap to be turned from one bay into another every so often.
After another hour or so turning the heap I think I've got it fairly well mixed.
The sharp-eyed among you will notice there are quite a lot of dried leaves in here. I believe modern wisdom suggests leaves should be composted into leaf mould separately but I can't remember why. Anyone know? (of course someone does!)
I'll post its some more photos once the 3 bays have been created to show the finished design. (Might take a week or two)
As you can see it is still work in progress (just one big bay) but I had to start using it straightaway as I had too much garden refuse to delay any longer.
The structure you can see so far is 2.7 metres long by 1 metre from front to back and a metre high. It is designed to fit an existing area of the garden where nothing much grows due to an overhanging pine tree - not ideal but better than not using the area at all.
The basic structure is simple: treated 8" x 1" planks screwed to 3" x 3" treated posts. I discovered that modern technology in making screws has created something called 'cutting screws' - they cut their way into the timbers without needing to drill first. Most builders will have known these for years it seems, but I'm not a builder! It's essential to use cross headed (eg Pozidrive) screws to avoid them slipping off the screwdriving drill bit.
At the moment there is only one big bay, which is just as well as I need the space to mix up all the 'greens' and 'browns' I've accumulated in my Dalek type bins.
The next stage will be to create 3 bays with sliding plank dividing walls so each bay can be separate or 2 made into one to enable the heap to be turned from one bay into another every so often.
After another hour or so turning the heap I think I've got it fairly well mixed.
The sharp-eyed among you will notice there are quite a lot of dried leaves in here. I believe modern wisdom suggests leaves should be composted into leaf mould separately but I can't remember why. Anyone know? (of course someone does!)
I'll post its some more photos once the 3 bays have been created to show the finished design. (Might take a week or two)
0
Posts
That's the theory anyway.
If I was starting all over, the one change I would make would be to make all three bays deeper (i.e. make the sides longer front to back). I can already see how quickly it could fill up.
(I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere - just can't think of one yet...)