The great thing about organic decomposition is that it’s always ready to start without you. However, if you want to be assured of consistently composted material on a regular basis, you’ll need to take the matter into your own hands and provide a setting in which the breakdown process can occur under the best conditions and with your supervision.

How to Build a Deluxe Homemade Composter

Fortunately, compost doesn’t ask much in the way of accommodations . . . so, depending on how much you’re willing to spend, your homemade composter bin can be as unassuming as a simple wire enclosure, or as fancy as a covered “post-and-beam” model.

If you’re short on time and not ready to spend much money on a composter, the “quickie” homemade composter version is right up your alley. It’ll take about $40 and less than two hours to put together, and it’s made of a 16 foot-long, 14 inch-wire stock panel hacksawed into 48 inch by 52 inch sections and clipped together at the corners with quick-connecting chain links. To ease the chore of filling it up, one of the wire sections can be cut in two, halfway up its 4 foot height, and similarly linked at the horizontal split to make a hinged flap which you can secure at the top with a couple of snap hooks.

Since the panels’ wire openings are 2 inches by 8 inches at the bottom and increase to 6 inches by 8 inches toward the top, it’s necessary to line the walls with cage fencing (or some other product with openings no larger than 2 inch by 4 inch); this inner grid can be secured to the outer with baling wire or leftover strands from the trimmed-down panels. To put the lid on the kettle, just invest a couple of bucks in a 5 foot by 7 foot polyethylene tarp and some S-hooks or rope to keep the heavy rain of your working pile. Then when it comes time to start a new heap, simply open one corner of the enclosure, remove it, and set it up at a different location.