Lovely, isn't it?

It's definitely not the most high-tech compost bin, but it gets the job done and cost us nothing. We acquired the pallets a couple at a time. In fact, the system began with three pallets, encompassing just one pile. Last night, John affixed the last two pallets to make it a 3-bin system made up of 7 pallets all screwed together. We figure this is all we'll need to keep us in year-round compost.

The far-left bin is the newest. All it has in it right now are the clippings from the squash plant that I cut away this morning. This will now be the bin we fill with dryer lint, vegetable scraps, chicken poo, garden trimmings, etc.

The middle bin has just been sitting for 4 months or so. It is ready-to-use compost. When we need to add some to the garden, we just scoop it out of this middle bin.

The far-right bin is the one we had been filling up (until yesterday). Now, it will be allowed to sit and decompose for the next 4 months or so. We will turn it periodically and be sure that it stays moist to speed decomposition.

So, now that we have all three bins in place, the functions just rotate. In 4 months, the far-left will be full and will become the one that is in the process of decomp, the middle will be empty and ready to be filled up, and the far-right will be decomposed and ready for use.