The Carrot Tops Allotment Blog!

After six years of loyal service – the time has come to rebuild the compost bins.

Originally, they were pallets that were used to hold slabs and were a perfect size to put compost into. I then also lined them with weed suppressing matting. To help maintain the wood.

The sides, of the compost bins were actually quite sturdy, generally speaking, but unfortunately, the bottoms rotted out. Plus, I was getting sick and tired of the weed matting getting frayed into the compost, so I’m not using that stuff any more, and I’ll probably just line the innards with any scrap cardboard.

These were the original compost bins when I first built them in September 2018.

I had to really think about how I’m going about rebuilding things, because a good portion of compost needed to be rotted down, whereas others were well and truly rotted out.

So I had to dig out a section, clear it, build a section, build another section and so forth.

The digging out was pretty straight forward and I managed to give 4 beds a good top dressing of a good half a foot.

Once one corner was cleared, I was then able to build a corner of the bin, and move anything that hadn’t rotted into that corner and then dig out the rest of the bins.

In total, I bet there’s about 3 tonnes of earth, and it tells me, that 4 compost bins would do a dressing for about a quarter of the plot as a whole.

Once cleared, I could then screw together the pallets to make the back of the bins. Thankfully, all of the pallets for the back were pretty much the same and so could be screwed together quite easily.

I’ve decided this time around, I’m not going to be lining the inside of the beds with any plastic matting. That stuff just frays and gets into the compost – it really irritated me and got on my nerves.

I had a set of pallet to make the front and I screw on longer posts from other old pallets and buried them just over a foot to keep everything a bit more stable.

I also put a divider into the middle to help distribute the weight and so I can turn the bin from time to time.

The front pallets were a bit gappy, so I used some old decking boards to cover those up, but left enough room to get my feet into the slats so that I can climb in and out of the bin for digging over.

They are still quite big holes, so if they are still big and debris falls out, I’ll slat in some cardboard or drill in some extra pieces of wood to keep everything contained.

Building a compost bin video

I made a video but had some camera issues, so apologies for the audio in places and lack of cool time lapse stuff.

I even had time to make a bug hotel from some of the the old wood, left over pallets and logs I had lying around, which finishes off the old stumpery made from another collection of old logs.

Between the stumpery and this new bug hotel, is a big old bucket full of soil where I plan to grow some carrots.

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The job tally so far

1. New posts for new numbers.
2. Raised pot for carrot growing.
3. Remove unwanted, rotten wood.
4. Repair the shed bottom on the outside, make mouse proof.
5. Board shed inside, add more shelves possibly, create a sitting area.
6. Chop open new barrels, remove lids, place in positions on plot.
7. Dig out compost bins.
8. Rebuild compost bins.
9. Clear out the bit behind the shed, create seed sowing area perhaps, or plant shrubs.
10. Order seeds/bulbs…etc.
11. Clean out pond, create sediment catcher (I think that’s what it’s called?).
12. Weed rhubarb strawberries and gooseberries and currants.
13. Dig out raspberries, replant.
14. Repair steel water butt.
15. Prune blackberries.
16. Sow seeds/plant bulbs.
17. Paint sheds, paint bench.
18. Go to the tip, remove unwanted stuff.
19. Repair wheelbarrow.
20. Build a new bug hotel with scrap logs and wood at the front of the plot.
21. Bonus: Plan growing season!

I’m hoping this post gives you some ideas on composting and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they last the next six years!