ragkar
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Hardware cloth is that steel screen with half inch holes. It's sold by all hardware stores usually in 3' by 50' rolls.
Compost Bins
- Thread starter Airic
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RalphVa
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Easiest compost bin to make is to just make a fence surround. You don't need a very fine mesh fence, just one that will stand up by itself. Buy a 25' roll of fence. Unroll it and then make it into a circular fence. Fill with stuff to compost. Pull up fence every so often, relocate and refill from stuff left on ground.
Ralph
Ralph
JeremyL
Silver Member
After consulting this thread I built this for composting our plentiful horse manure. First I had to build a barn to store the hay, then get & stack the hay so the horses can turn out "road apples" which we can now turn in to black gold over the winter. It is built in to the bank below the barn and next to the garden. So load it from the top, mix and remove from the front. It is 6' wide and 4' deep and 3 1/4' tall. The Boss will likely want me to divide it down the middle so that we can work two piles. Piles of hay, piles of manure, piles of compost; ain't we got fun?
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Egon
Epic Contributor
It would sound like you may as well get started building at least two more compost bins!
RobertBrown
Veteran Member
My compost bin has about two yads of compost. It's a three sided bin built with pt lumber.
The important thing to remember about a compost bin is the material has to be turned regularly to incorporate air into the mix. Air is necessary to keep the microbes healthy. A three side bin is a no brainer if you have a tractor with a loader. Build it wde enough to accomadate the loader and life will be a lot easier.Turning a yard or two of wet compost with a shovel two or three times a month is no fun at all
The important thing to remember about a compost bin is the material has to be turned regularly to incorporate air into the mix. Air is necessary to keep the microbes healthy. A three side bin is a no brainer if you have a tractor with a loader. Build it wde enough to accomadate the loader and life will be a lot easier.Turning a yard or two of wet compost with a shovel two or three times a month is no fun at all
RalphVa
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2003
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- 7,885
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- Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Tractor
- JD 2025R, previously Gravely 5650 & JD 4010 & JD 1025R
Last year at master gardener college, one of the classes was a visit to the composting area at Va Tech. The guy in charge there told us what they do and showed it to us. They have HUMONGOUS bins, about 30' cubes. They have perforated pipes (just that 4" to 6" corrugated stuff like you can get at Lowes or Home Depot) that they lay down first and blow air through them with a compressor once the stuff to compost is put into the bins. He said that a perforated pipe just laid underneath would do almost as good a job, in their experience when they've had their compressor out. Based on this, I leave a perforated pipe underneath my pile. Right now, the pile is so big from shredding 80-100 bags of leaves that it has over flowed the pipe ends. I need to turn it and uncover the pipe. Actually, I need some more pipe.
The guy told us that he'd composted whole cows in the bins and that the highway department composted road kill all the time in some of their compost areas. He says you can compost anything organic, e.g. not metal or plastic. If you compost stuff like this, you have to make sure that you get it to heat up (to around 140 F) and all to really cook and compost. Most people (like me) don't get it hot enough consistently; so, we caution people not to put animal matter into their piles.
Ralph
The guy told us that he'd composted whole cows in the bins and that the highway department composted road kill all the time in some of their compost areas. He says you can compost anything organic, e.g. not metal or plastic. If you compost stuff like this, you have to make sure that you get it to heat up (to around 140 F) and all to really cook and compost. Most people (like me) don't get it hot enough consistently; so, we caution people not to put animal matter into their piles.
Ralph
RobertBrown
Veteran Member
I put fresh grass clippings, 3-4 wheelbarrows full, several times over the summer and that gets the temperature to just under 150 f. for about 48 hours, then it starts to come down. The green stuff really seems to get it hot! Afew weeks after you add the greens the pile starts to shrink and you can add more. I add in horse waste a month before I use the compost and it seems to work well.
I have to ask. Is a bin needed due to area constraints? If it is, used cyclone fence works well to keep materials in check. If not, large piles work for me.
Every year I pick up 100-500 bags of leaves to compost. I used to shread and container them but now I just unbag and pile them. I add whatever manure I can find, and anything else compostable for that matter, and I just let it sit in piles untill it rots. It does tend to end up spead out some but that is taken care of when I turn and re-pile it using the fel. I could easiley use all the leaves I could get if I had the means to move them all. What this ends up being is the most economical way to compost. The more energy you save making the compost the better our world is.
Every year I pick up 100-500 bags of leaves to compost. I used to shread and container them but now I just unbag and pile them. I add whatever manure I can find, and anything else compostable for that matter, and I just let it sit in piles untill it rots. It does tend to end up spead out some but that is taken care of when I turn and re-pile it using the fel. I could easiley use all the leaves I could get if I had the means to move them all. What this ends up being is the most economical way to compost. The more energy you save making the compost the better our world is.
