DIY Backyard Compost “Station”

For any stellar garden, you need to produce some compost.
Compost is like top soil. It is decayed, organic materiel to be used as fertilizer. It’s an amazing supplement to potting which for most gardeners is a huge cost for growing their own food.
To build this 3 Bin compost “station” I was able to utilize a work table in our backyard shed. I need to fix the floor in there, so that made the table not useable in it’s current position. It was just an added bonus to our house by using it as the base for our compost station. Another beauty of using the table is being able to use the tabletop as a potting station – functional space. The majority of the wood was from our back deck. Last year we tore up the back deck we purchased the house with and put in a larger, more sound Green Back Deck. We’ve had the old wood in piles on the side of the house for a year now. Now, some of that wood is part of the compost station.
To divide it into three sections, I initially created 2 dividing segments. The front and back boards are 41″ tall. I then nailed 5 pieces 18.75 inches long in between them. Those two segments fit right into the base of the table, dividing it into 3 22″ wide sections.
I then nailed boards onto the sides and back to create the space. I used 6 boards tall to cover the sides so there was less distance between the boards. I want to harbor a warm enclosed space to raise the temperature of the organic material decomposing inside of the containers.


On the front I used 2 large boards on the bottom, then created 3 doors out of plywood, using hinges attached them to the base. It is important that you can easily move the material in the bins, to aerate it and to move it between phases. I cut the doors 20×22 out of scrap plywood I had laying around since the over the mantel chalkboard project. 3 cheap hinges and now the sections are fully enclosed. Even without compost you can put your hand inside and it feels warmer.
To see more about my compost "station" and why I chose to make it the way I did. Also, a few tips for composting. Check out the blog post, linked below.
Kristy Lingebach
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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