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We have been composting a proportion of our organic kitchen scraps and garden waste for quite some time now, but since moving to a new home in East London we decided that the time had come to build a better compost bin based on the lessons we've learned thus far. Although plastic open-based compost bins are now readily available in various nurseries and hardware shops, we found these to be extremely expensive. Apart from this, we also had quite a bit of green netting and shadecloth on hand thanks to the previous occupants of our home - so we put our heads together and came up with the following simple and inexpensive design. Much to our delight we now even get contributions from our neighbours as well! :) Social composting...now there's an idea...
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We cleared a circle in the grass where the new compost bin was to go. From experience we've learned that grass (especially the octopus-like tendrils of Kikuyu grass) growing into the bin can make it nearly impossible to retrieve your compost at a later stage. Aside from this, it generally seems to be a good idea to keep grass from growing into the bin or the resultant grass-contaminated compost will end up sprouting wherever you apply it at a later stage - not really our idea of fun.
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We took some green plastic netting that we had on hand and looped it into a slightly overlapping cylinder (open at both ends). We tied the overlapping ends together using small portions of green gardening ties but any non-decaying ties will do.
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We cut a circular green netting "lid" to fit on top of the bin. The lid keeps moisture in and large animals out.
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The lid was attached to one side of the cylinder using cable ties. The remaining portions were subsequently trimmed with a pair of scissors.
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We covered the lid with remnant pieces of green shadecloth and fixed the cloth to the underlying netting using small portions of green gardening ties.
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Tigger soon hopped in to inspect the interior and after pointing out some remaining grass in the base, gave us the go-ahead.
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Next we tied shadecloth around perimeter of the bin and fixed the upper portion. Over the years we have generally tended to live in areas with a great deal of sun and wind and have consequently found that some sort of aerated fabric is necessary in order to keep the compost from drying out.
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The shadecloth was additionally fixed to the netting along the overlapping join, as well as around the lower portion of the bin.
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We hammered several tent pegs through the netting and into the ground to prevent the bin from falling over or flying away. We had additional tent pegs lying around in a cupboard, but any sort of bent piece of metal or other durable material will do just as well.
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In order to keep the bin lid from flapping around we decided to make use of a few medium-sized pebble "weights".
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We wrapped the weights into the trailing ends of long strips of shadecloth.
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The parcels were secured with cable ties...
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We suspended the weights from three sides of the bin lid via cable ties.
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Once again Tigger appeared on the scene to check whether the lid was stable.
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"Feed me, Seymour!" - Making our first contributions.
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The completed bin in action - containing some garden and kitchen refuse. The bricks placed on a cleared ring around the base provide additional stability, protect the bin during lawn-mowing and edge-clipping and assist in preventing grass from growing into the bin. We subsequently additionally fixed a simple ring of plastic netting around the middle of the bin. We tuck the suspended weights into the ring when the wind is truly howling.
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The final bin containing already some garden refuse. |
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