Homemade Compost

Friends of ours made a compost a year ago and I have been asking my husband for one ever since. 

This Valentine's day he surprised me and said we were going to Lowes to pick out wood and build a compost!!!

I had originally wanted a pallet one like this one here.  However, I am much more pleased with what he created!

We purchased the following items:

• Treated Dog Ear Fence Pickets (12 of them)
• Treated 2x4s (5 8ft ones)
• Treated 4x4s (2 6ft ones)
• Box of 1.5 in Galvanized Nails
• 2 Hinges
• 1 Gate Latch

Our total came right around $60 and we had a gift card for $30!

I wish I had taken more "work in-progress" pictures, but this was his project for me :)

First he made a frame our of the 2x4 and 4x4s (the 4x4s were the vertical corner pieces and the 2x4 are the horizontal part of the frame...two between each corner post)

On the outside of the frame he attached 6 of the dog ear picket fence posts.  He cut each picket fence in half and then dog eared (cut the corners) all of them to match.  That means three picket fences were used on each side.

He placed the compost and dug down the corner posts.

Then he put the hinges on with the front door slightly off the ground. And attached the latch.

Layering your compost

My husband looked up the process of layering a compost properly.  He called it brown layers and green layers.

First he dug up the dirt and laid down some wood chips and put the dirt back on top. 

Then he put some of our compost we have compiled over the past year in the 5 gallon bucket (by the way, don't put your compost in a bucket that has not holes...compost needs oxygen and our bucket of compost smelled HORRIBLE...a compost should NOT have a smell.

He put more brown layer (dirt, wood chips, grass clippings, etc). And then more of our green layer (egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds, stems from fruit, etc). He continued to do this until the compost was full of our current materials.

I am very proud of our compost and I can't wait for it to develop into lovely usable tops soil for planting.