I knew towards the end of last growing season that 3 of the 'units' in my composting system would need replacing. I initaly constructed them 5- 6 years ago and the bottom of the pallets were disintegrating...in addition the fence behind the pallets (the edge of the edible garden, keeping chickens and grazing animals out), was also starting to fall apart.
Compost system in the height of summer...using pallets like this is a great way to use an onsite resource. Pallet dimensions also create the perfect size for the place of composting with the farm system as a whole. 
Having 4-5 compost 'units' in use at one go means that within the system I have designed, each unit gets at least 2 years for the organic material to break down, (without any intervention), producing some really beautiful compost at the finish.
My initial idea was to build new units in the same location, after doing some work to repair the fencing. However when I observed the bigger picture more closely, I realised that the 2-3 years old) compost in the units was surplus to requirements this year and that by leaving the compost and pallets next to the fence in place I could create some more stability to the fragile fence, hopefully giving it a couple more years of life!
I decided to create an additional growing area on the compost site, using the pallets and some forestry 'waste' tree tubs as the edges of the beds. This meant that I obtained an instant yield (new raised bed to grow more plants in my edible garden), at the same time as reducing the human effort of moving the compost/broken pallets to another area.
I decided to create an additional growing area on the compost site, using the pallets and some forestry 'waste' tree tubs as the edges of the beds. This meant that I obtained an instant yield (new raised bed to grow more plants in my edible garden), at the same time as reducing the human effort of moving the compost/broken pallets to another area.
The transformation in progress 
....with Floss Dog' s help of course.......(thanks FD)
Finished raised bed, all ready for planting! (now covered in black waste silage wrap, to keep warm/protected for a few more weeks before some shade tolerant plants are ready to plant out
The new bed created will be in shade for most of each day so I plan to grow shade tolerant plants as part of my bed rotation system in there. (probably some oriental greens,parsley, nasturtium and broad beans along the edges this year). I've already started creating 3 new composting units (with recycled pallets) at the other side of the fence, which will hopefully provide even more strength to the boundary as well as being more accessible from my forest garden.
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