How to Make a Home Compost Bin

Overview

Composting turns your kitchen and yard waste into rich soil that you then use in your vegetable and flower gardens. Leaves, grass, plant clippings, and vegetable and fruit waste from your kitchen are all recycled into some of the healthiest and most nutrient-rich soil any gardener could hope for. While composting can be done with just a pile in the corner of your yard, a proper bin helps contain it as well as keep out animals that may otherwise destroy the pile.

Step 1

Mark out the site for your bin. Mark where each post will go by marking a square with each corner 3 feet apart. Place a stake in each corner to mark the measurement.

Step 2

Dig a 3-foot-deep hole for each post and place the post inside. Pound the 4-foot-tall pressure-treated wooden post into the ground with a sledgehammer, so it is 8 inches into the soil, then fill the hole, packing the soil firmly.

Step 3

Wrap a 13-foot length of 3-foot-tall snow fence around the posts to enclose your square. Overlap the ends of the fencing where it meets.

Step 4

Snip 2-foot lengths from the heavy wire, cutting three lengths for each post. Wrap the wire around the post and fence, then twist tightly to secure using pliers. Wire each post at the top, bottom and middle to secure the fence.

Step 5

Cut two more lengths of wire. Twist these through the areas where the beginning and end of the fence overlap to secure them together.