Friday, February 19, 2010

Composting for Cheapskates

Over the last two summers I've discovered something about growing one's own food: It's compost heavy. The most common food plants people grow (nightshade family - tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant), are the biggest nutrient hogs in the produce garden. Legumes aren't as thirsty, and Cabbages aren't as hungry, but those tomatoes (which are pretty much all some Minnesotans grow in the summer) really love their nitrogen. As such, I've been buying fertilizers every spring to re-energize my garden. I know, get on board, right? I just haven't gotten around to building a compost bin... until last fall! And I did it for free, and it'll cut at least thirty dollars out of my outlay every spring! Read on...
My garden is conveniently located against the fence on the alley end of my property. See figure I to the right: It's just on the other side of this fence (Mr. Miagi style, I keep a pristine pastoral yard behind a fence that keeps out horrifying urban blight). On the outside of said fence, I dug two post holes for 2X4's (fig II):





Then, I took a bunch of old siding slats that were up in the rafters of my garage when I moved in, and screwed them to the posts and painted them to match the house color. I had some leftover stucco mesh from making a sifter that I stapled to the slats in figure III. My only problem was what to do about the fence. The fourth wall of this bin was treated for outdoor use, yes, but wasn't exactly designed to have a hundred or so pounds of rotting organic matter resting on it. I painted a couple wide panels with the same outdoor latex paint, and screwed them into the fence as a buffer between compost and fence (fig. IV).

I didn't get a chance to put a top on the bin before the snow flew this winter, but come spring I'll put hinges in a sheet of lattice and toss a padlock on the front (I don't need neighbor kids tossing god knows what in here), and I'll have unlimited compost for the vegetable garden, for zero dollars.

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