The Composting Kick

The Composting Kick
I’ve been composting for years using the lazy man’s method of throwing kitchen scraps into a pile in an unused corner of the yard.
I added the requisite grass clippings and cuttings and collected leaves and would usually let it be, not even bothering to turn over the soil until the next year when I would shovel the enriched compost around the vegetable and flower gardens, feeling like I was doing my part to be in sync with Mother Earth.
One tends to get busy with different things over the years and sometimes composts and gardens can fall by the wayside. Fortunately, there is a lot of yard so out of sight, out of mind.
Unfortunately, a compost pile left idle under cover of more clippings and small branches makes a cool home for bee colonies.
After a couple of years of overall neglect I decided to dig up the pile to spread on the gardens only to remember the hard way that bee colonies do not like to be disturbed; their reaction akin to how we would react if Canada decided to move the Rez to another location.
Anyway, I surrendered that compost pile to start another one on the other side of the property right where my larger garden had stood for several years.
Easy to just toss the slop pail onto a pile and let it be, throw some grass clippings over it, forget about it, then dig it up and flip it onto the garden patch later on.
Finally this spring, with some time on my hands, and maybe even some wisdom wrought from maturity, I figured that the environmentalists and agriculturalists who advocate for compost bins are on to something.
I was into reclaiming my garden and still amassing large amounts of compostable materials since getting more into the healthy eating kick.
Looking for the shortest distance between two points I googled “compost bins” and came across a simple webpage from the University of Wisconsin that simply explained how to build a simple compost bin using simple wood skids or “pallets” and some simple hardware.
Simple – I like that word. All I needed was four skids and eight hook & eye screw sets, some tools and the determination to get a job done.
While at BMR hardware on Industrial Boulevard in Chateauguay, I asked the kid in the lumberyard if I could buy some pallets.
He walked me to the end of the driveway, pointed to the pile of pallets there and said, “help yourself anytime.”
Luckily I had my van so I crammed two of the 4X4 pallets into the van and hauled two onto the rack. By the way, pallets are heavier than they look. I picked up 4 pairs of hook & eye screw sets from Jacobs Hardware for less than $10 total and headed home.
It was raining by the time I got home, but I was motivated. Levelling the ground took less than a half-hour; I could not remember the last time I played in the mud but i didn’t care, I was building a compost bin.
Now for the hard part – standing two pallets at 90 degree angles, drilling holes for the eye screws, measuring the length of the hook, matching the drill holes, two pallets connected in less than ten minutes.
The third wall and fourth walls followed with increasing ease, another ten minutes and I had a real true-to-life compost bin. The slop pail gets readily dumped, grass clippings abound and I’m on my way to real composting. I’m happy, the wife is happy, and most important, the bees are happy.
Check out the website if you want to do it yourself for less than $10 and some sweat equity: http://www4.uwm.edu/shwec/publications/cabinet/factsheets/WoodenPalletCo....