Some Bin Ideas to Get You Started on Your Own

All gardeners have their favorite bin styles, and there are countless good ideas—more quality methods and quality bins than could be adequately described on any website. But no gardener’s preferences for his or her own bins are prescriptive for all situations. Their unique preferences work perfectly for their unique situations, and your situation is likely much different. It’s more important, therefore, that you find your own styles, setups, and systems that work best for you. I’ll show mine simply as food for thought, for those who are interested, or for those who could use some ideas as a starting point in their pursuit of their own favorite style. Your styles and favorite systems will evolve over time, each iteration edging closer to meeting your unique needs. Enjoy the journey.

The bins described here are made with interchangeable panels. Pallets are pre-made panels. Although they’re often made with oak or similar wood that will rot relatively quickly, they work just the same. I also like bins made with chicken wire and a few supporting upright wood slats…and many others—again, there are more quality designs than can be adequately described—but I need to stop there or this will turn into a composting book.

The Panels

I make each of the four sides out of cedar 1x4s and hardware cloth, cutting the boards in whatever equal length between three and four feet gives the most efficient use of the boards available at my local lumber yard and choosing a hardware cloth size that will best let in air but also best contain things as small as shredded paper (¼-½”). 

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Here’s an overview of the process, but all steps are shown and described closer up and in more detail below.

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Grabbing from my pile of boards of equal lengths, I place two on each end as vertical uprights and then fasten four others to these uprights to create panels with equally spaced horizontal slats.

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When I first started making these bins years ago, I used seven horizontal slats, thinking the spaces between them would allow for an ideal mix of containing the compost while still allowing air into the pile. However, a fair amount of soil and smaller materials still spilled out of the spaces between the slats. Lining the insides with hardware cloth solved the problem. Additionally, I found that, since the hardware cloth does the rest of the work of holding everything in, the panels only need four horizontal slats—top, bottom, and two others evenly spaced in between—for structural stability. Plus, having fewer slats allows for even greater airflow.

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Originally, living in town, I designed these panels as a part of a two-bin system, set close enough so that one extra panel between the two on the backside created a third, open-fronted “bin” between the two. Panels were “permanently” fastened to each other with short exterior deck screws, except for the two front panels on the outer bins, which were fastened with eye-hooks at each corner, making them easily removable for mixing and removing compost. 

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Since mixing just involves shoveling the curing compost into a new pile right next to the old one, the middle “bin” was a great place to put the mixed compost, and having an open front with just a foot-wide board hemming in its bottom contents worked fine for the relatively smaller volume of compost once a bin’s contents had shrunken down by mixing time. Plus, the open front of the middle bin made it even easier once the compost was cured and it was time for final removal into wheelbarrows bound for the garden. 

The two outer bins did, however, required some support near their fronts so they wouldn’t splay open when we removed the front panels. We screwed boards across the top and bottom near the front of each to solve this problem. You can see the top boards in the picture above; there are corresponding ones even closer to the front hidden on the bottom. However, to keep the fronts from splaying, I couldn’t place the top boards back far enough to be completely out of the way, and they ended up being a source of repeated frustration (and expletives) when mixing compost into the center bin. I can’t tell you how many times I spilled a shovel-full of compost all over the place because I bumped those boards. On the bright side, although I tried to keep it under my breath, the neighbor kids who listened closely probably learned a few choice phrases.

Still, this bin system worked great for our limited space in town, and, despite their drawbacks, we’d still be using it if it weren’t for not having room for it on the 800-mile move (not that I’m bitter that I didn’t find a way to bring it). Plus, being cedar, it was attractive enough that our neighbors didn’t complain. As things go, I reckon our joy became the new owner’s junk—as I’ve seen pictures that they put in a lawn over our double-dug garden beds and strawberry patch—and, for their lack of appreciation, they got to endure the labor of tearing them out and disposing of them—not quite a fair trade, but I’ll take what I can get (not that I’m bitter or anything).

Now, having more space, however, we use a bin with fewer or no drawbacks.

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We make the same four panels and attach them at their corners with L-brackets, carriage bolts, and wing nuts, so we can pop the panels off without tools (except for maybe a brick or a rock to tap a few of the carriage bolts in enough to get some L-brackets off).

In this way, we drop the sides—or just one and splay the others enough to pull the bin away from the pile—move the bin to a new location—ideally, one close to where it’s going to be spread, so we don’t have to cart it around to spread it—quickly reassemble it, and go back and mix the old pile. The pile is small enough by then that it doesn’t need a bin to hold it once it’s mixed, and, no longer living in town, we don’t have to worry about what our neighbors think about its aesthetics. 

These are some different options, but, really, do whatever you want, and feel free to experiment. I’m sure some purists of specific methods are effervescently apoplectic by this point, but, where you get or how you make your compost just aren’t worth getting upset about. And your particular bin choice, style, design, and dimensions certainly aren’t worth being a source of stress or feelings of unworthiness. The point is that we all, as gardeners, put as much organic matter as possible on our gardens and into our soil each year for the health of our soil and plants. That will pay benefits for years and generations to come. How you get it and how you do it is up to you—and should be a joyful, continuously edifying experience, not a source of feelings of inadequacy or “should do’s.” Doing it or not doing it will have great effects on your garden’s success, but even that isn’t worth having that experience be anything other than a wondrous exploration of growth and learning. I’ve met too many people in my life who feel vaguely ashamed as they put purchased compost on their garden and way too many others who would try to make them feel this way. Yes, growing your own is wonderful and might better fit your values in the end, but, if you’re feeding your soil to grow your own food, there’s a sacredness inherent in that choice. Celebrate that. The rest will come when it needs to.