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Project: Build your own garden composter
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Strike it rich in your garden by building a deluxe modular composter.
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By Gary Walchuk
photos: Bert Klassen
illustration: Len Churchill
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Alchemists in the Middle Ages tried to conjur it from lead. Prospectors rushed to the Yukon to search for it in riverbeds. And while youre not likely to find much mineral gold in your backyard, a good composter can do what the alchemists could notturn waste into gold. Black gold for your garden, that is.
This composter has four things going for it. First, it's bigger than many ready-made plastic units, which have to trade off function in the interests of easy shipping. Our shop-built design also has a removable lid with a built-in sifting screen made of 1/2" hardware cloth to ensure that only fully rotted compost gets to your garden. The louvred front keeps air circulating and is also removable, making it easy to fork out your black gold. And finally, it looks great, especially as it weathers grey without a finish.
 Image at left: This handy screen, hidden in the lid, separates pieces that haven't decomposed from your finished compost.
This design is also easy to expandadd on a second or even a third composter and you can have different piles at different stages of decomposition. While youre filling one composter with new organic matter, you can take rich, garden-ready compost from the other.
You'll need about 130 linear feet of 5/4" x 6" cedar decking stock (1" thick x 5 1/2" wide) and four 8' spruce 2 x 3s (1 1/2" thick x 2 1/2" wide) to build the project. I chose spruce for some parts because its stronger than cedar and holds screws well. To speed construction and boost durability, drive all screws flush with the wood surface, without cutting countersunk holes first. Besides being unnecessary in softwood, countersinking opens the wood grain to moisture, promoting rot.
 Image at left: Louvres help aerate your compost pile, and because they're removable, you can take a few out to reach finished compost at the bottom, or take them all out and turn the whole pile over.
Get Busy
Start building the box by cutting 18 side and back slats, and four spruce inside corner members. Next, place two corners on your workbench, 34" apart, with their 2 1/2" faces down. Now attach six side slats to these parts, ends flush with the outer edges of the corner members and a 1/2" space between each slat. Fasten the slats and corners with one screw per joint initially, then square the frame by equalizing diagonal measurements taken corner to corner before adding two more screws per joint to lock the assembly firm. Build the opposite side frame exactly the same, then stand both upright, 34" apart, and join them with the remaining six slats to produce a three-sided, free-standing box.
Next, prepare the six outside corner members and add one to each back corner of the box, flush with the back face as shown on the plans. Attach two more outside corners to the front face of sides, and the final two on the outside faces of the sides. As you'll discover, the outside corner members add considerable strength to the unit, and cover the exposed ends of the slats, for a neater, trimmed look.
Cut the two stop strips to size and attach them to the backside of the front inside corners. The plans show how these strips overlap the inside corners by 1" along their length and prevent the removable louvres from dropping into the composter.
 Image at left: Strong corner construction is essential for durability. Your composter has to withstand the forces of weather from the outside and the strain of a heavy pile of hot, rotting compost on the inside.
All Spaced Out
At this point, you have the basics of a three-sided box. Now it's time for some detailing. From your supply of 2 x 3s, cut the ten side spacers and two bottom spacers to shape, with 45' cuts, as shown in the plans. These are screwed to the inside surface of the front inside corners, to hold the removable louvres.
Begin spacer installation by screwing the bottom pair flush with the bottom ends of the front inside corners. Then, working your way upward, apply five spacers per side as shown. This leaves about 1 1/16" between each spacer for the louvres to slide 45' down to the vertical stop strip you added earlier.
The kickplate and top brace bind the three sides of the compost box together to hold the load it will contain during use. Cut these parts now and screw them in place as shown on the plans. Cut and install the base members while youre at it. These are designed to snuggle into the ground, boosting stability. Cut the removable baffles next, slide them home, and the body of your composter is done.
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