Compost is the blood in the veins of any garden.
It supports and feeds all the microbial life
and other soil life. It helps with water retention,
soil erosion and it can also build soil structure.
In this episode, I'm going to show you how to build the most effective
compost bin from pallets. I'm Tony O'Neill and this is Simplify Gardening. And on
this channel we deal with all things gardening.
If you want that perfect garden to relax in or just want to grow your own
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In order to make a compost bin that will produce you
nutrient-dense organic compost that will build your garden soil
you need to follow a few fundamental rules and they are as follows.
Number one. The ideal size is a cubic square meter or
3.2 feet square. Because this gives enough volume and mass so
that it creates enough heat to break the compost
down much faster. Number two. When we're
building and designing our compost bin we need to
consider the style of pallet that we're using.
Euro pallets are really good for this because they are relatively square.
They are just as high as they are wide. Now,
if we designed a bin that was low and spread out then this wouldn't help
the compost because it allows it to cool
down too quick. What we need is stout,
high compost bins and this helps us build our heat much quicker
to break it down quickly so that you keep that nutrient within the compost
itself. And number three. Although you may have
heard people talking about introducing air into compost.
This is good for the compost, but we also need to ensure
that we are enclosing that compost. So we need to create a cover around it
and a top to help hold that heat in. The whole build process is quite
straightforward. And I'm going to walk you through
step by step so that you can see exactly how to build a system just like mine. Now,
mine is a five-bay system. Now in this video, I'm going to show you
how to build a single compost bin. But the methods are identical so if you
want more and more bays then you just add those bays on. The
process is exactly the same. So if you want a system like my five-bay you
just keep adding sections but the overall methods
are the same. So what you'll need to be able to build
this compost bin is as follows. You're going to need three
euro pallets and possibly a fourth if you don't have some planked wood
available to you for the front. You're going to need
some floor protection, some screws nails or whatever you want to use
to fasten the compost pallets together. And you're
going to need a sheet of plastic you're going to need a piece of carpet
and obviously you're going to need a hand saw and a
power impact driver or drill driver. Now the tools for using this are very
basic. It's literally a saw and a hand driver
you don't need anything else so if you have those
you can build this system. So the first thing you need to consider
is where you're going to place your compost. Ideally
you don't want to place it in full sun, nor
do you want to place it underneath the trees. Because
if you place it too close to trees the runoff of the compost can affect the
root system. However, there is always a caveat to
these two rules. And that is if you really need to place
that compost where you're going to use it and if the
location is like mine over there it's out
in the sun. I chose to build mine in direct light.
Because I know that eventually, I will build a roof over it protecting it from
the sun. So let's get to building this compost
bin from these pallets. The first thing we need to do is create
a level area where we are going to build our pallet compost bin. And to do that
it's simply a case of just levelling off the soil wherever you're chosen
destination is. Start by standing two of the pallets to
create a corner, ensure that both pallets have the tops
facing into the compost bin and screw these together through the
supporting blocks of the pallet with six-inch screws. Once this has been done on
all three supporting blocks we need to square up this corner before adding a
third sidewall. If you skip this step the front will not
slide up and down and the whole structure might be unstable.
Lift the third wall and screw this as we did the previous sides.
We now have a bay built and in place. We can make this stronger
if we desire by capping the surface of the pallets with extra planks of timber.
This will give the top a solid surface but also help strengthen the compost bin.
I will not be doing it here, as this is a demonstration compost bin.
And I will need to dismantle it and move it for a future project I have coming
for you. Before we worry about the front to this compost bin,
we need to wrap it in this stuff. This is floor protection from my local home
depot store. It is used to protect hardwood floors
when you're doing work in your home. It's very cheap and made from twin-wall
vinyl. It's recyclable, waterproof and it's easy
to fit. Simply wrap the structure starting with
the sides and staple the covering into place.
Work around the entire compost bin and then fold and cut the top and staple
this down. The front is created by screwing two
pieces the height of the compost bins in the middle of the blocks. This
creates the space to form part of the slot that the front doors
will slide in. Screw onto these a plank that will create the slot.
And the front is ready to receive its doors. As far as the doors go,
I do not need any for my future project, so i'll take some from my personal
compost bins to show you. They are very simple to make, cut a
number of planks of pallet wood to the length of the
distance across the front of the compost bin.
Allow around one inch gap for the front to slide easily.
I suggest making the front in two sections as it's easier to remove
and fill the compost from the bins.So cut some two by two timbers
half the height you need you'll need four in total.
Take two of these and screw or nail the planks you kept previously to these.
Slide these fronts into their slots to check the fit and there you have it, the
compost bin is complete. All you need now is to cut a piece of
plastic to cover the compost when it's filled
and a piece of carpet to go over the top of that. When selecting your pallets
you want to look for the HT symbol. That means that
these pallets have been heat treated only and
they haven't been impregnated with chemicals which could
leach into your garden. Now the blue and red pallets that you
typically see on construction sites and things
have all been treated with these chemicals and should be avoided.
So there we have it a good-sized compost bin that will take
maybe about a ton of compost. This is something that you can stick
in a garden somewhere it's not going to look unsightly
and it's going to really help you get the best compost you possibly can
that's full of nutrients. Now as you can see here, I've got five
bins that are full of the stuff and i need to empty this onto the garden
before this year's stuff goes into it and i'll
create another one. But I'm creating two batches of this a
year and i could probably use it after about
three months as a mulch. It's really good quality compost and you
can do that with this and put it in a garden next to a shed or
something like that and it's not going to look unsightly. If
you found value in this video, you can subscribe here and when you've
done that, if you want to learn exactly how to make
the best compost ever then this is the video you should watch. Because in
that I show you all the ins and outs of making the
perfect nutrient-dense compost. I'm Tony O'Neill this is Simplify
Gardening, where I show you how to garden in a simpler way.
Remember folks You Reap What You Sow! and I'll see you in the next one
bye