Compost Tumbler - 3 Things You Must Consider When Buying Compost Tumblers

Compost Tumblers

If you are environmentally minded, you should compost. Composting is a painless way of reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills. It also results in a nutrient rich soil amendment you can add anywhere in your garden, proving that you can get treasure from your trash.

When buying a compost tumbler there are a few things to keep in mind.

1.Bigger isn't always better. Most people believe that bigger is better and so they get the largest tumbler around. While this may suit your needs, bear in mind that the larger the bin, the heavier it is and the harder it will be to turn.

2.Doors should open easily. Some tumblers have doors that screw on to the body of the composter. These are cumbersome and over time often get clogged with dirt and debris.

3.Consider how you will be removing the finished compost. Some composters are low to the ground, while some are higher. If you plan on dumping your compost into a wheel barrow it will be easier if the composter is higher off the ground. If you are planning on using a shovel to remove your compost, you may want to consider a composter that is lower to the ground.

Compost bins are a must have in most suburban and urban environments. Most municipalities have regulations against open compost piles as these can attract rats and other pests, in addition to developing an odor which can be offensive to your neighbors. Compost tumblers provide an elegant solution to this problem. They are generally odor free, neat, and unobtrusive.
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Compost Tumblers - The Benefits of Having a Compost Tumbler

Compost Tumblers

If you are an organic gardener, you know that composting is no easy task. There is a great deal of hard work, persistence, and dedication that is necessary in order to get the compost that you need. This is true unless you own your very own compost tumbler. Here are a few reasons why you should have a compost tumbler for your garden.

Centuries ago, farmers would create piles that would create the compost for their garden. They would have to manually turn the piles to keep the process going. Although the sun and nature would do its share of the work, the farmer would still have to do a great deal of manual labor to keep aerating the pile.

Today, compost tumblers have replaced the necessity of hard work. There are many advantages to having one and they can easily be made or purchased at a local store near you. The purpose of the tumbler is to automatically keep everything aerated. Air is very necessary in this process and without it you will have little or no fertilizer for your garden.

Why Use a Compost Tumbler?

Compost Tumblers

About Compost Tumblers and Why They Work So Well

With all of the talk about going green, reducing your carbon footprint and helping to reduce climate change these days, more and more people are looking at the possibility of using compost tumblers in their back yard. I am going to show you some of the benefits of composting here and then look at some of the best methods of creating compost from your kitchen scraps, yard waste, and many other sources.

The benefits creating compost

One of the most prominent reasons to compost is that you are creating a natural fertilizer for your yard and garden. The nutrients from the food waste and yard waste is naturally turned back into the same plant nutrients that you get when you purchase commercial fertilizer from the hardware store, except that the compost form of these nutrients is completely natural and much less harmful to the environment. Why is it less harmful to the environment? Because commercial fertilizers are made from ingredients that require a vast expenditure of energy to produce them. The main nutrients in plant fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Most nitrogen production uses natural gas as its base ingredient, and then nitrogen is forced to react with the gas at high temperatures and pressure, requiring lots of energy. Phosphorus and potassium are mined from big open pit mines using heavy machinery requiring massive amounts of diesel fuel for transporting and processing. The traditional end result, sadly, is that food waste and yard waste end up going to the landfill.

How it can save the planet

Imagine for a moment if every household in the United States returned every shred of organic household and yard waste into compost on the spot. Actually this is a little unrealistic because logistics, such as lack of area in around apartment buildings, for example, make it an unlikely prospect. But just imagine if three quarters of all households did this. The benefits would be three fold:

1. Tremendous savings in fuel by not having garbage trucks transport tons of organic matter to the landfill.
2. Tremendous savings in energy by greatly reducing the amount of industrial fertilizers used.
3. Reductions in fuel used for mining, processing and transporting industrial fertilizers.

By composting, you are putting an end to the wasteful one-way stream of energy use and putting nutrients directly back into the soil, for your yard and garden to naturally thrive on. By doing so, you are also saving money on expensive store bought fertilizer. You are moving one more step toward self sufficiency by not needing to go to the store and buy something that can be produced in your back yard. And you are indirectly reducing carbon emissions. The traditional and most common method of composting is to simply pile the material up, say, in a corner of your yard. This will work, but there are many disadvantages, such as odors, a messy looking yard, and unwanted vermin feeding or nesting in the pile. There is a much better, quicker, and cleaner way to create compost. That is with a device known as a compost tumbler. The compost tumbler makes it super easy to create the conditions needed to create compost in quick order. Organic matter such as food waste, fruit peels and grass clippings need air and a modest amount of moisture to decompose properly. The composting process also creates heat, and this heat needs to be distributed evenly for the best results. By turning every few days, the heat is dispersed evenly, and air is introduced into the compost, and the process proceeds much more rapidly. In addition, the compost tumbler saves the back-breaking work of shoveling and turning the compost pile.

Compost Tumblers - Gardeners Love Them

Compost tumblers

If you're looking to turn your garbage into gardener's gold and do it in a hurry, then you should try a compost tumbler. If you have a compost bin then you know how great it is to add compost to your flower beds and vegetable garden. But making compost takes time and it's usually in short supply. A compost tumbler is a great time saver when making compost.

Some gardeners believe that compost is better than fertilizer because it doesn't just feed your plants, it also improves your soil. Improving your soil keeps your plants healthier so they grow stronger and more capable of fighting off diseases or beating droughts. Compost is decomposed organic matter and is high in nutrients that plants love. Bacteria and other micro organisms help break down that decomposing organic matter and their short life cycles become part of the process itself. When they reproduce their offspring continue the process while the parents bodies break down and add to the organic matter. It's nature's way of recycling.

Compost Tumbler

Compost Tumblers

Compost tumblers can speed up and eliminate at least part of the harder work of fast or "hot" composting. The microorganisms that do the actual composting work can be considered the livestock of the compost ranch. Like all living creatures they have three requirements for survival, food, water and air. The food is the organic material to be composted. Water is supplied by hose, bucket, or the original moisture contained in the organic material. Air is the hardest to get to the center of the pile as it slowly compacts under the pull of gravity.

A compost pile starts out as a mixture of large and small materials and air can often make its way to the center of the pile by way of pockets that are left open by the larger pieces of matter. However, as the microorganisms continue their work of composting, the larger pieces get broken down and the smaller ones compact so as to close off the air. The pile can go anaerobic as the microorganisms die off and a new type take up space. These new ones will continue the composting work but it will be slower and the pile will have an odor that most people do not like.