How to Make a Compost Bin for a Home

With a good compost heap, you can make your own mulch and keep your yard looking good. You may want to build a compost bin to keep all of the organic matter that you’re adding to the heap confined to one area. One concern with a compost bin is keeping the material piled up without restricting the air flow to the compost material. Using fencing to build a compost bin can solve this problem.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Fence posts
• Fencing

1. Find a good spot. Composting works best when the organic material is allowed to touch bare earth because then the beneficial microbes from the soil aid in the decomposition process.
2. Get some fence. Use either chain link or welded wire fencing to make your compost bin. Chicken wire by itself will not support a compost pile. You’ll need a 25-foot roll of 4-foot tall fencing to make the compost bin.
3. Buy some fence posts. Steel T-posts can easily be driven into the soil to provide support for the fence sides of the compost bin.
4. Make a square. Mark four places on your composting spot to drive in your steel fence posts, thus creating a square. Make each side of this square 4 feet long.
5. Drive the steel T-posts into the marked locations. A post driver really speeds this job up. If you don’t have a post driver, you’ll have to dig out holes about 2 feet deep and plant the fence supports the hard way.
6. Roll out the fencing between 2 adjacent fence posts. Use fence ties or light-gauge wire to fix the fencing to the posts. Repeat until you have fenced off three sides of the square.
7. Cut the last section of fencing. This section will be the door of the compost bin, so you need to be able to drag it open. Fix only one edge of this section with fence ties, and use a rope, chain or other reclosable system to hold the other side in place.

Tips & Warnings

• You may need to cut each 4-foot section of wire in order to get the fencing to snugly fit to the support posts. Test fit the fencing between the posts before cutting.
• You can make an outer layer of chicken wire around the finished compost bin to help keep smaller organic material from falling out of the compost pile.
• Always wear gloves and eye protection when working with metal fencing.

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