Recycling Your Dolly & Ike Debris

Wood fences are very apt to be destroyed in the high winds of a hurricane. If you live in deep south Texas (Hurricane Dolly in July) or the Houston or Galveston area (Hurricane Ike in September), chances are you may have a stack of fence boards waiting for the refuse removers to pick up. Walt brought his to The Arboretum yesterday and made this nifty compost bin! It is a 4 foot cube.Walt had already constructed the two sides with the slatted boards. It's pretty nifty how the angled boards keep your compost ingredients in the bin while allowing for some ventilation. If you are inexperienced with carpentry like I am, you can always make all four sides solid. Just drill a few holes in the boards. Walt connected his two pre-constructed sides with 4' fence boards. Not only did he end up with a compost bin that would look great in any yard, he kept these wooden boards out of the landfill!

Here's a close-up view of the sides. Just cut triangular pieces to set the slats an an angle.

And don't worry if your fence didn't blow down. I'll be you have a neighbor who would love for you to haul off their old boards.