Drilling holes in compost barrel

[Brian Braun]

I have two barrels I got from my local Saturn dealer. They had car washing solution in them, are of the 55 gallon size and are opaque white plastic.

I want to use at least one for a compost barrel after a thorough rinsing,. I have the hardware to install a hinged lid and will roll it around every few days to mix the contents.

The one thing I am not clear on is where and how many holes to drill. The advice I have read says to drill holes but I have not seen the deatails. Specifically:

(1) Where? Top and bottom? The sides or both?

(2) What size holes?

(3) How many?

Any feeedback will help me get this up and running this weekend.

[Penny Morgan]

You should drill the holes all around the sides of the barrel and on the bottom. I wouldn't put any on the top because you won't be able to control the amount of water that penetrates when it rains heavily. As far as how many, try to get as many as you can for air circulation. The holes should be small enough so the crumbs don't fall out. Think of the size of the holes of a colander holding spaghetti (the size of a ladybug or smaller). You could do double lines of holes around the bottom sides, middle sides and top sides (think of stripes going around the barrel like this ..===========). If you have more energy, put more holes.

Hope this helps.