| Tuesday Tools & Products: Compost Tumblers |
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| Written by Heleigh Bostwick Tuesday, 05 June 2012 | |||
 If you want to make your own high quality compost all year long, try a compost tumbler. Compact and efficient, compost tumblers work by aerating, rolling, and mixing organic matter to help it decompose faster. Due to their smaller size, compost tumblers are not suitable for composting large amounts of yard waste such as grass clippings. Save them for the compost pile. Available in a variety of sizes and shapes from spheres to elongated ovals, some are transportable and some are stationary. Most weigh in between 20 and 40 pounds and are equipped with interior mixing paddles and aeration holes in the body of the tumbler. Wile most compost tumblers are on stands, the RotoComposter Jr.  sits right on the ground.
While compost tumblers work faster than traditional outdoor compost bins because of the mixing action, you can also add earthworms, a handful of compost from the bin, or compost starter to speed up the process even more. Many compost tumblers also generate what's called "compost tea", a liquid derived from the organic matter that is used to fertilize houseplants or outdoor plants. Compost tumblers are easy to use and great for apartment or condominium dwellers with limited outdoor space, for example a small urban garden, balcony, patio. You can even keep one in the house because they function as a closed system, and there's no odor associated with a compost tumbler even when the organic matter consists solely of kitchen waste (fruits and vegetable matter). |
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