Have you ever wanted a compost bin to help naturally fertilize your garden but were hesitant because you didn’t want that big ugly plastic bin in the middle of your yard? Well, we heard you and we solved that problem.  We often have a variety of leftover material from our landscapes projects: from extra brick pavers and blocks, to plant pots and material pallets. Instead of sending these leftover materials to the landfill,  we seek ways to repurpose them into useful ideas for the home and landscape. Our newest repurpose: upcycled pallets compost bin.

After we finish a job we’re left with dozens of wooden pallets. After looking at stacks of them at our shop we thought there has to be some good way to upcycle the pallets and repurpose them instead of paying to have them hauled out and sent to the landfill – after all, these pallets are almost always in good shape. What if we could reuse these materials for a fun and beneficial garden project? Quickly we ran to the drawing board and put together a sketch for a modular compost bin. With just a few minutes worth of drilling and attaching bolts to the 4 pallets, we had a strong, durable modular compost bin that would last many seasons before having to be replaced. Best of all, when the bin finally started to break down you only needed to through the pieces in a your new bin to turn them into more compost. Success!

It worked and we set up the first bin in one of our landscape designer’s back yard. Mike fills it with a combination of table scraps (high nitrogen) and leaves/paper towels (high carbon) to make the proper input ration. Read more about composting here. The photo to the left shows our first bin in Mike’s yard.

Compost is very important for many reasons. Not only do you save room in the landfills by reducing your waste stream, but you provide a natural, organic fertilizer for your garden. You can then reuse the discarded food scraps you grow and repeat the cycle all over again. Pretty cool huh?! We love our new upcycled pallets compost bin.