Due to some recent tree-felling activities we had quite a lot of pine needles lying about on the lawn, and after we’d distributed a fair amount in the woodland area and around various acid-loving shrubs there was still a ton of it left, so when I aired the option of creating a specific compost heap from it to rot down over the next 3-4 years and create some lovely acidic compost – as an environmentally sound alternative to peat moss spaghnum – the Flâneur Husband jumped on the idea and instantly started looking around for stuff that could be turned into a compost container.
His eyes landed on the small fire wood box that used to be on the covered terrace – a three-sided contraption that used to be up against the house and held kindling dry – and to add a fourth side he re-purposed the back of an old bench where the seat had all but rotted through.
The design of it all obviously was a bit “make-do” in style, but it looked decent enough to be placed in the furthest corner of the garden, especially once we started loading it up with pine needles.
I think you’ll agree that once it was filled it actually looked like quite a respectable little compost:
Pay special attention to the way the ornamental rose carving on the bench back was intentionally displayed, ensuring that – as far at compost containers go, this is quite a pretty little thing:
However, within 5 minutes of admiring the finished result we ended up agreeing that it was too small, so it was ripped out and replaced with this much, MUCH larger container made of old fence sections:
Not as pretty, but VAST! It’ll be a mixed compost heap instead, probably shared with the neighbour – whose house can be seen in the picture above – and we will probably take years to fill it. Pretty? Not so much, but practical!
-So perhaps next time will remember to think about what we need before cobbling anything together? Then again, maybe not…
The firs one looked rather quirky and nice but needs must come first as the bigger one will definitely serve its purpose much better. Good job btw 🙂
I’m sure we will find a use for the smaller box; it can be used for storing kindling or something. Never waste a good box. 🙂
Very nice compost heap! The weaving of the wood on the side will help vent it and it will heat up better since there will be more bulk. It will probably fill up faster than you think. My own is just a heap so it does not look very neat but then no one else but us can see it.
Oh, I have no doubt it will fill up in a year or two, especially since we have rather a lot of tree-felling and cutting-back projects scheduled for later this year… And then comes the grass clippings, the perennials and so on, so we definitely needed something larger.
I thought the prominent display of the rose very charming, but yes, the larger one will be used to its fullest capacity. You never have enough compost.
You can get too rich and you can get too thin, but you can NEVER have too much compost…
I could do with my own pine needle composting area but with a log store, leaf mould bins and a compost bin my storage area is already full. You should produce some lovely stuff. The larger one is much more functional but I do love the rose motif of the other. 🙂
We have a fairly large “corner” behind the fern patch where we can stick things more or less out of sight, so for now we’re okay for space for compost, twig piles, old bricks et cetera. And the rose box will end up back there, I’m sure, but with what purpose I know not…
Nice new compost box. But you totally need to reconstruct the bench– it is a beautiful design!
The back of the bench was actually the only salvageable part, as the rest of it was – literally – crumbling. If we wanted it reconstructed we could buy a new one for 50$ in the local supermarket; this particular model is sold everywhere in Denmark, and let’s face it: nobody has sat on it for the three years we’ve owned the summer house…
The rose one did look small, but the design was cute. The big one is much more practical. You are lucky to have a husband that does those projects. Mine does nothing in the garden or in the house. Well, all that compost you will reap will be a good thing in time. I use compost with abandon.
The rose box was imagined just for pine needle compost, so the size would be just about adequate for that, but the larger one will be a more generic compost. After all, you can never have too much compost…
My husband and I are fairly evenly matched in DIY skills, which is to say neither of us is a great handyman, but we can both do more or less what’s necessary around the house and the apartment – the trouble is just that we enjoy smaller projects and tend to procrastinate on the larger ones…
I found both your compost containers attractive. I remember how surprised I was to read that gardeners in some parts of the United States buy bags of pine needles from garden centers to use as mulch. It had never occurred to me that the pine needles that are constantly raining down on my property are a valuable commodity! Adding them to compost seems like a great idea. Recently, I’ve discovered that my new Serenity Garden, which sits in front of two large old white pine trees is self-mulching; I can just let the pine needles lay where they fall and do the job (and since it’s a woodland garden, it has lots of acid-loving plants).
If you think about the amount of peat moss / spaghnum that is dug up each year to satisfy gardener’s craving for acidic compost, destroying age-old habitats in the process, it becomes quite clear that anything that can reduce the use of peat moss is the bee’s knees… 🙂