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Build a compost sitter on wheels. It's easy to build and easy to use
Compost bins are a free source of the best organic material for your garden beds. Just toss in garden clippings and kitchen scraps, and soon you'll have nutrition-rich plant food. However, to get top-quality compost, you need to separate twigs, rocks, and undecomposed vegetable matter from the good stuff.
The best way to do that is to use a sifter with a wire mesh bottom. Most sifters require you to hold them up as you shake them back and forth. The wood-framed sifter shown here gets a vigorous workout in Sunset's test garden, but, since it rests on a wheelbarrow, it puts little strain on backs and arms.
The sifter consists of two parts: a frame that straddles most wheelbarrows (length-wise or sideways), and a tray with a bottom made of metal screening. You fill the tray with material from the compost bin, slide it back and forth in the frame, and dump the leftovers from the tray after the good compost has
fallen into the wheelbarrow.
HOW TO MAKE IT
Our sifter was built with redwood, but you can use fir, cedar, or a pressure-treated wood. You'll need:
6 feet of l-by-1
10 feet of l-by-2
5 feet of l-by-4
16 feet of 2-by-4
46 #6 2-inch drywall screws
8 #10 3 1/2 inch drywall screws
1 2- by 3-foot piece of half-inch-square galvanized metal screen
Galvanized 14-gauge staples
2 sturdy metal handles
Sandpaper
Clear polyurethane
Candle
For tools, you'll need a handsaw, combination square, drill, hammer, screwdriver, tin snips, and paintbrush.
Cut the wood according to the dimensions in the drawings. Assemble the frame by screwing the 1-by-1s flush to the bottom of the inside face of the 2-by-4s with the 2-inch screws (predrilling will help
prevent splitting). Screw the two 1-by-4 crosspieces to the bottom of the 2-by-4s.
Screw the tray's 2-by-4 side and end pieces together using 3 1/2-inch screws. Cut the screen to size with tin snips and secure it to the bottom of the 2-by-4s with galvanized staples. Screw the l-by-2s to the tray's bottom, and screw a handle to each end.
Sand the wood surfaces and seal the frame and tray with polyurethane. The final step is to rub a candle on the bottom of the tray and the tops of the frame's 1-by-1's so the tray slides easily.
By Peter 0. Whitetey & Bud Stuckey
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