This post begins with a shout out to Craigslist.org free stuff. People give the stuff they don't want away. Its a little like FreeCycle but without the joining the group and getting all the email part.
Next comes an introduction to shipping pallets. I love them. You need a van or truck to pick up a pile but they are often made out of hardwood and they make great project stock, fire wood, you name it. I have even seen a pretty cool chicken coop make from pallets. The down side? They take effort - sweat equity. They generally have to be taken apart or have things added to them to make them work for your project. My goal was to make composting bins for free.
Where do you get free pallets? Craigslist.org (free)...it is a wonderful place to find all sorts of things for your home and garden.
One pallet is in the back with a few extra slats to fill in the blanks. Then two pallets were unscrewed and re-constituted as the 3 walls. 4 hours - an additional hour to finish it off with front panels made from scrap shelves I found in the garage.
And then a funny happens. We have a sealed black plastic composter for our kitchen scraps. I felt that two bins would be enough for the pallet composter...this was not the case so, as you can see in the final picture, there is a third bin. Made the same way as the others.Also, not that these are now FULL. It took no time to fill them.
Some of the fronts are painted, this is because the wood was not sealed - I felt it would last longer if a little paint sealed the edges.
We will probably need more bins somewhere else. But for now, we have compost bins for free. This makes me and my empty wallet pretty darn happy. Next up? Well, its spring so there will be some planting. Chicks are ordered and will arrive in a couple weeks and its time to put the gardens in. None of this will be free. After that - rainbarrels for $20...seriously, I'll show you.
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