Compost-Tumblers
Containers For Your Garden Waste

Use compost-tumblers to efficiently and greatly speed up the decomposing-compost-process of the leftover kitchen and yard waste. This will make beautiful nutritious food for mulch.

Decrease your household garbage output with mulch-tumblers or compost bins to get started. Some composters are free through your town office, or you can purchase the fancier ones like the tumblers at your local hardware store. You can even find plans for these and make one yourself.

There are so many benefits to composting. You are creating food for your gardens, reducing pollution, and decreasing what ends up in the landfills.

Composting is basically free and easy to do, once you know how to do it and most importantly, get yourself and your family into the habit.

You can start inside your house by keeping one, or two, compost containers in your garage or under your sink, until it goes out to your bin for composting or garbage pick-up.

Any number of things can go into a compost pile. Kitchen waste is the biggest item.

This can consist of a number of items. Kitchen waste such as grounds from the coffee pot, tea bags and egg shells add up pretty fast, which are all acceptable. Vegetable cuttings are perfect to add in.

Protein-based items like meat or fish do not go in the pile.

Also, don't add things like animal droppings, or dirty diapers.

Things like leaves, lawn clippings, and plant cuttings are acceptable. Wood shavings and straw can go in as well.

This is a good start to being on your way to composting.

Once you have an accumulation, take it out to your bin, and just throw it in.

Have an interest in worms? Vermiculture is another great form of composting. See Worm Composting Scraps and have some fun learning how.

Take a look at the entire starter kit for this Wormery cost and maintenance.

Think you could make one yourself? This person didn't seem to have much of a problem, and done very cheaply as well. Watch the video and maybe you will be inspired to try making your own homemade-compost-tumbler.

How To Build A Compost Tumbler

The compost heap heats as more items are added. This means the decomposition process has begun. Add some worms to the pile. They will help with this process immediately to speed up the decomposing-compost-process.

Mix the compost up from time to time by giving it a turn with a shovel or rake, and then leave it for awhile.

If mulch is dryish, add some water. Don't soak it, just give it a drink.

If you are using a compost-bin with a lid instead of compost-tumblers, lift up the lid so that it can get some sun for a day.

These types of bins are usually referred to as pallet-boxes. They have a lid that lifts up and a sliding panel at the front, that enables you to take the contents from the bottom. I got mine from our local Town Office. I hear they are easy to make yourself.

Air circulating through the pile helps the heating process.

Keep your pile even, but stir it up to get the air into it occasionally and give it a boost. This is one of the benefits of compost-tumblers. They are up off of the ground and you can turn them just like a drum from time to time.

They are quite efficient and well contained. They also make the manual labour of composting less strenuous. They also hold moisture longer and compost items quickly. Best of all you don't have to worry about rodents or other animals getting into them.

Tumbleweed compost

Whatever kind of compost heap you start, it should be enclosed to some degree.

Animals and flies can be attracted to it and you don't want this. You don't want it to smell either.

Compost-tumblers are pretty handy for containing possible odor and the presence of insects very well from the rest of your property.

If compost is forming properly, it in fact should not have an odor at all.

It will take the course of a few months or more but this will reduce in size and the contents at the bottom will be turned into a nutritious mixture for your gardens whether you use compost-tumblers or another form of bin.

Another way to effectively compost is to bag up leaves in the fall and fill up dark garbage bags. Pile them and let them sit over the winter months. You can put a bit of dirt into them as well.

This mix will get very mucky, but in the Spring, it makes a great mulch for around trees and shrubs.

Not only will it help to keep weeds from forming, but it will stay moisturized as well.

Are you a green tea drinker? Don't throw away the leaves. Recycle Green Tea used leaves for the good of your home and in the garden. Throw these into compost-tumblers too.

Leave Compost-Tumblers, Return To Carbon Footprint Defined Home Page

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