Zensojourner, a passive pile using kitchen scraps did attract mice to my bin and they wintered over in it. That was years ago. I pulled it apart and only collected leaves and grass clippings after that. I also havenâÂÂt seen hide nor hair of a mouse since. When I have kitchen scraps and open vegetable garden space, I bury it directly in the bed along the edges. It has worked okay for me in the past, but I donâÂÂt always have enough open space. Thanks for the tip about freezing first. GardenMom, I have two black plastic com posters from the town I live in and the cover locks on them. I was using them for kitchen scraps once and a wire bin for leaves and grass clippings, but something chewed right through the plastic to get into those, so I stopped putting kitchen scraps in it. I like buying scraps in the garden itself when I have bare ground. Raised wooden beds, donâÂÂt really allow using the pathways for that purpose though. Good thought though in a flat garden. I wasnâÂÂt confused, Nancy, no worries! :-) Loribee, I like your plan to keep one bed fallow each season. I have five vegetable beds and I originally planned on doing the same thing. As a matter of fact, two of my beds were doing so terrible that I yanked everything already and sowed cover crop over both of them. I hope I can stick to that plan, itâÂÂs just I am enjoying having so much room to grow more crops that itâÂÂs going to be hard not to plant the whole thing. [g] YouâÂÂve encouraged me to try to commit to it. After all, itâÂÂs just one bed and I will still have four more! And I like your reminder that without a separate compost pile, there is a whole lot less lugging and moving. Yes, I have always thought that tumbler would be really nice to have, but what a high price for them!! I like your original idea of one bed fallow each year. Much more of an organic, elegant solution. :-) Any chance you could add another bed? Galinas, ThatâÂÂs an interesting idea, so you have a triple size, but no compartments, itâÂÂs all one open area, then you temporarily use plywood to separate it. Yes, it would allow me to just start three piles and leave them until they were ready. Great ideas, everyone, thanks!

Grocery stores are probably not the best place to look for pallets since most of the pallets they get must be food safe and therefore expensive. Look for pallets at nurseries or any of the so called dollar stores or other businesses that recieve non edible products in large quantities. Keep in mind that to keep from having these items pile up many of these stores may have a contract with a company that makes mulch to haul them away.

When I found that pic in google, I was also so impressed . Then I thought about all cutting, screwing, begging my husband to help ....:))) and finally I end up with just cutting square foot hole on the side of the barrel, but not in the middle part ; I cut that hole in the top side part, so I could use it not just rotating horizontally, but also keep it vertical for a while. When it is time to rotate, I lay the barrel on the ground and roll it several times and let it sit horizontally. Then several day later I roll it again, or put it vertically. Actually it is not difficult at all. Sorry, I don't have my own picture of the barrel.

Hi dgriffin - there are all kinds of posts here on how to build all kinds of bins from simple 3 sided bins from pallets tied together to fancy tumblers. But the best place to start is with the FAQ on composting. You'll find suggestions there for different types of bins you can make. Then check out these discussions for a start. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0515472921942.html http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/accessible/msg031948455873.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0109074524835.html http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg042040421641.html Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Composting FAQ's