Compost Sifter

I love my compost bins. I have two in my garden and in the spring I take the wonderful bounty out of the composter and use it as a soil amendment in my garden. This weekend was the designated weekend to accomplish that task.

Sometimes some larger items in the composter (like tree branches) don't completely decompose. I use a sifter to separate the small decomposed material from any remaining larger items.

The pictorial below shows how you can take a garden shop plant flat and turn it into a wonderful sifter.

(But first...Casey needs my attention)


Start with the plastic container from the garden shop flower flats.

Cut wire screen to fit the bottome of the flower flat. Cut the wire so no edges of the wire remain. Be careful. I got a few puncture wounds from the exposed edges of the wire mesh.




Attach the metal screen to the bottom of the flower flat using zip ties. This are available from the garden shop or from the hardware store. Once "zipped" cut the remaining "tail."


Here I am sifting my compost. You can see one of my compost bins behind me.