Building a Simple Compost Bin-A How To

"Earth knows no desolation. 

She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay."
-  George Meredith 

   When I was fifteen, I began working for this elderly woman who would pay me $15 every Wednesday when I worked for her from 3:30 to 5:30. Her name was Marion Smith. She was and is was one of the most interesting people I have ever gotten to know. She grew up in New York and her family lived on Long Island long before it became what it is now. I never knew her age because she was only old on the outside. Each Wednesday, she would have a list of jobs for me to do or for us to do and every Wednesday, she would have us a "pick-me-up" snack to eat at around 4. It was when we were eating our always healthy snack that she would tell me about her life in New York where she attended school and then taught school for 40+ years or about something she read in the New York Times or The New Yorker; two publications I'd never really heard of and definitely never read. She loved to talk politics and always made me think about my side of thought. It was one of the first times, I'd ever had to really make my beliefs my own. And I guess, there really isn't a better place to talk politics or books than while picking oranges and tossing them down to an old lady on a ladder or washing 150 windows in an afternoon before youth group. One of my jobs each week was to add things she had been collecting for a week to her compost pile and then turn the soil. And for some odd reason, I kind of liked doing it. I get some odd satisfaction from using a tool like a shovel and using it for the reason it was invented. It just feels right. So, I wanted to build us a compost pile like her's so that we could benefit from it like she did. And so, I looked up a bunch of plans on the ole' inter web and decided that I would ignore them and build a replica of what she had. I have seen better or prettier compost piles, but if it was good enough for her, it is going to be good enough for us here at Hines Terrace Herald. 

    Here is how I put our's together. It has been finished for several months now and the "compost" it is making is looking very dark and rich. I am looking forward to adding it to our garden boxes next spring. It is also more fun than I thought to save something each day to add to our compost pile. Between saving items for recycling and the compost pile, our daily amount of trash has been greatly reduced (one of the three R's, if you remember). The only downside is that often times, most of what I throw into it, some how makes its way back to our backdoor when our dog Jack decides he wasn't really ready to throw it away, but that is for another day or another post. So, without further ado....

These two create much waste, but Mel, Ford, and myself need it for some other endeavors. So, Eudora and Flannery, we salute you and thank you. Our lives are greener and fuller because of you. 

One good cleaning of our chicken coop gives us one good wheelbarrow full of what we will call "ideal compost".

Our green, full garden at its best this summer. We can thank the chickens for this. 

The nice little spot I picked out in the rear corner of our backyard.

The first thing you need for a good compost pile is a carload of blocks. (Car sold separately)

Then you can level out one side. 

Then you can lay out several blocks on one side and level them.

Now, its time to clear and level the back side of the compost pile. 

I made our compost pile three blocks wide, three blocks deep, and three blocks high. 

Now, time for the third and final side.

Two of the three blocks down and leveled.

Level one of our compost pile almost level and complete.

The beginnings of level 2. 

The leveling of the corners.

The pile with two layers.

The beginnings of the third level. 

The finished compost pile.

The first addition to our newly finished compost pile. 

And so our pile begins to grow.

A new delivery fresh from our eggstrordinary, poultry factory.

And so our new compost pile begins its baking of some new soil for our 2013 garden.

Happy Composting and thanks for reading,

   David