How to make a pallet composter?

Organic composting is a practice that if you start doing, you will see that your garden soil will literally "bloom" to give you the best harvest, plus you will save money because you will be making your own homemade compost.

In previous posts we have explained how to make natural compost in a pile if you have space in your urban garden, but if you like to keep your natural compost in a more discreet and tidy place, you can use those pallets that you have stored and do a bit of DIY in the process.

We did mention that pallets are sometimes difficult to dismantle, as they come with considerable screws and you will need to first remove the boards, separating the wooden columns of the pallet from the thinner boards.

For this reason, we will first talk about the "easier version", where the pallets are used "as is" and the "more elaborate version", where we will have to dismantle the wooden pallet pieces and remove the screws beforehand.

Easier version: compost bin with original pallets.

1. First of all, you will need to get about 8 or 10 pallets and screws about 3 to 4 cm long.
2. We will form two squares with the pallets joined with the screws.
3. The reason for making 2 bins is because we will need to move it every 30 days or so to the other pallet composter, until the compost is self-fertilising.
4. On one side, we will cut the last section to improve access to the organic material.

More elaborate version: compost bin with pallets disassembled to form a drawer.

1. First of all, you will need to get about 8 or 10 pallets and screws about 3 to 4 cm long.
2. We will dismantle the pallets, obtaining the wooden columns and slats separately. The dimensions of the compost bin to be made will be approximately 95*95cm.
3. Using two columns, we will assemble the boards "a testa", with the edges touching each other, in this way on the 4 walls of the drawer units.
4. It is necessary to leave about 4 to 5 boards on one of the sides without placing them, as this is where we will collect the compost that our compost bin will "self-manufacture".

In the upper area we will only place about 6 screwed boards because in the rest we will place some hinges to be able to open and close.

Which raw material to use?

The raw material for composting is readily available in your everyday life:

• Organic food waste.
• Vegetable scraps from the garden or your plants.
• Animal manure.
• Ashes from burning branches and leaves.

The process of filling the compost bins

1. Without tamping the first layer, add a bed of kitchen scraps and green plants.
2. Sprinkle a small amount of ashes or lime to prevent odours when decomposition begins.
3. The next bed is made of manure
4. The last one with soil and the whole pile should be watered.

This is done successively until you reach about 15 cm below the top of the pallet composter.

What does the Ley de Arrendamientos Rústicos say?

We meet "Masphael's Farm", a tradition that goes back decades.