...and a little sunshine, some rotten leaves and a bunch of kitchen scraps.

Last year, for Christmas, my husband bought me a compost bin. To be fair to him, I asked for one. I wasn't clear, though. I wanted one of those wooden ones with 3 bins side by side so I'd have one bin with new scraps, one with partially broken down compost and one that is ready to use.

Instead, he bought me the green cone. (www.greencone.com). Good idea but it holds only kitchen scraps and appears to be full of maggots. Disgusting.

After a little research, I found several articles detailing how to make a compost bin out of those wooden pallets you see behind just about any grocery store or Home Depot. Some web sites give pretty detailed info on building the bin - I like this article from the Do It Yourself network (www.diynet.com).

So, two weeks ago, after my son's soccer game, we ran around in our gas guzzling truck and found 5 pallets left on the side of the road to be thrown away. We brought them home, dug out a level spot near the garden, put one pallet on the ground, stood the other pallets on top of the first to make a box, then tied them together with old wire hangers. Voila. We had a compost bin.

Unless you live in a big city like New York and have no land or in an apartment building with rules (and neighbors), why not build a bin? If it doesn't work, you can always put it back by the side of the road like you found it.