bad metaphor

Once upon a time, I saw a compost bin for an incredible steal at a garage sale. Something like $25 or $30 for a large green bin. I noted the price at the time but decided we didn’t have enough room to haul it back, since my roommate and I had a free Christmas tree from another garage sale stuffed in the trunk. While the tree had many awesome qualities, including lighted strands already on the tree, freeness, and ability to rotate (!), I still look back and figuratively kick myself for not trying to cram in that composter also. The cheapest new bin I can find anywhere is at least $50. Since I was getting mightily tired of having to dig a new trench each and every time I take out the compost, I decided to pony up for a new bin from Home Depot.

Until I looked at the bin and thought to myself, hey! that’s just a garbage can with an open bottom! And busted garbage cans can be had for far cheaper than fifty dollars. Turning to the trusty dusty Internets, I found a number of websites outlining DIY compost bins – and quickly became confused by the sheer variety. Worm composters? I must confess I’m a bit bigoted towards legless creatures, and the thought of having to handle hundreds of slimy wrigglies writhing in rotting kitchen slop….eww. There are instructions available for setting up several different wood contraptions, all of which entail things like “sawing” and “precise measurements”…a little too complicated for a compost noob. Then I came across a description for how to build a closed air compost system. “Easy to build.” Aha!

So I gathered my ingredients. I made some minor substitutions; since Krissy happened to have a lot of chicken wire laying around, I borrowed some of this along with all the tools, and decided to make her a composter too.

So far so good!

Ingredients: trash can, utility knife, tin snips, chicken wire, screws, hammer and nail. The hammer and nail was used to make holes in the can for screws; a drill would be ideal but this method works just fine.

Despite my ill-advised attempts to photograph myself stabbing into a rubber bin with a box cutter, I failed to slash my own wrists. Eat it, Darwin!

Step 1: make ye a large hole in the bottom of the trash can. Leave enough room to screw in your chicken wire. (Owing to the awkward shape of this particular trash can, I ended up needing to screw the chicken wire into the sides of the can anyways).

Halfway done, in no time at all!

Now take those tin snips and trim the chicken wire to a size slightly bigger than the hole you have just made. Here’s where the chicken wire makes it a bit tricky – you’ll need to trim the chicken wire so that you can slightly unwind the “ends” to wrap around the screws. Like so:

Set the wire circle aside. Now use your hammer and nail (or drill, if you were smart) to partially install the screws. I only ended up using about 8 – 10 per bin, just enough to keep the chicken wire taut. Use your wire circle as a guide to where to install the screws, if need be!

Note the lack of polish to the rough edges and the blatant crooked placement of the screws. Who cares? This part is going in the dirt and is having kitchen refused tossed into it, so no need to be a perfectionist!

Unwind the wiry ends you have created when you snipped your circle, and wrap these ends around the screws you just installed. Continue working until you’ve got the circle more or less wedded to the can, for better or for worse! If the shabbiness of the product bothers you, or if you don’t particularly feel like being poked in the chest while you carry this thing to its final destination, trim and bend in any chicken wire ends that are sticking out.

Compost view.

Now the fun part – paint your bin! You’re going to the trouble of making your own compost bin, might as well jazz it up a bit.

Appropriate spelling and grammar optional, natch.

Banana peel and leaves equals….

…a flower whose petals kind of resemble the banana peel, turned upside down? I think this would have come across better had I stuck with the yellow paint for the petals.

There you go, a new thing to throw carrot ends and avocado peels into! If I had to do this again I would use slightly larger trash cans, as I went the cheap route and did mere 20 gallons – blatantly defying the website instructions which told me to use 32 gallons or larger. Also, I lined the insides of the trash cans with duct tape markings every six inches, to indicate a point at which it would be a good idea to toss some leaves or lawn trimmings onto the kitchen scraps. I’m not sure if I really need to do that, but it seems like most composters do a mix so I’ll try it out.

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