In an effort to be a bit more eco-friendly around our house I have come up with a barrel composter to convert our organic waste into something quite useful. We hope to take our kitchen waste, lawn clippings, leaves and other organic material and fill up our barrel. Then after it "cooks" for a few weeks, empty it out and start over again. In this way we hope to not have to use a local yard waste service and be able to put out less trash on the curb.The composter is really simple to make. It took just one plastic barrel, one 8 ft. 2x4 and one 8ft. 2x6, a 26" steel pipe and one 38" 2.5" PVC pipe. I ran the PVC pipe through the length of the barrel and it sticks out of both the top and bottom. The PVC is filled with 3/8 " holes so that there will be plenty of air movement through the barrel to help composting. I drilled several holes around the top and the bottom of the barrel for more air movement. The steel pipe runs right through the middle of the barrel and sits on a cradle I made out of wood. It is easy to rotate the barrel to mix up the material inside. I'm sure it will do what it is supposed to do, but I'll have to wait and see just how good it works. I'll make sure that I keep everybody com-posted. It's fun being green. -Gerry
Well all you compost lovers...I emptied the barrel and spread compost in my garden and around our flower beds. A couple of things that I will do differently next batch; egg shells should be crushed and any leaves or small sticks should be sent through a mulcher as they did not compost very well with the rest of the stuff we put in there. But otherwise, it took everything we put into it and reduced it to good earth.
ReplyDeleteWell, its been a month since you laid your compost on your garden and flower beds. Are you seeing good results? Have you tried any on your lawn yet?
ReplyDeleteI am just about to take out the next batch of compost. For some reason this one has taken longer to decompose. I think that I had too much green stuff (grass clippings) and not enough brown stuff (dead leaves) in it.
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