Sept. 19. It arrived!! Now to get the thing out of the box and put together! BIG box -- the thing is heavier than I thought it would be!
Sept. 22. My son, Chris, is in the process of putting it together. So what do you suppose we should do with the extra 7 parts? Kidding! Chris is so very thorough with these sort of things.
Sept. 22, later. It's done. All put together and ready to start filling. Her she is! Ain't she a beauty!
Composters
We've composted for the better part of our marriage. And we've used many arrangements, from heap, to bin, to now, the tumbler.
The cheapest compost set-up, by far, is the heap. Also known as, feeding opportunity for anything on four legs. Yes, we had all kinds of varmints, from rats, to opossum (if plural, is it opossi?), to coyotes (who'd have guessed the ones in our neighborhood were vegetarian), to raccoons, and to squirrels. An open heap is not the best compost situation in areas with lots of wild animals (now they tell me).
We had a heap for the first few years in our current house. There was a nice secluded spot behind a tree. We'd take our bucket out there every other day and dump it on the pile. Every few days we'd turn soil over it, in attempts to discourage the critters.
Next on the list -- the homemade framed bin. Framed either in wood pallets, or with a wood-frame and chicken wire-screened sides. Works efficiently enough. Best if you have 2 or 3 framed bins, 1 for the finishing/finished stuff, 1 for in-progress stuff, and a new bin to be filling as you have material. We never built one of these bins, but leap-frogged to the large plastic bin.
Moving up the expense ladder -- the free-standing, dump in the top, retrieve finished compost from the bottom, large plastic bin. This is what we have been using for about 15 years. We got ours at a county eco-fair, for a fraction of it's retail price. I think we paid about $12 for it, then. It works, although slowly. And critters can get in, by burrowing underneath, or as rats have done, by chewing a hole right through the lid. But definitely more attractive, and less odoriferous, than a heap.
The next two options are about equal in expense and expediency. I can see merits to each. I'm speaking of vermicomposting (wormeries) and the tumbling composters. Both can give you finished product in a short period (4-8 weeks on average).
The worm composter is often used by folks with less space for a large bin. The worm composter can be kept on a deck, porch, garage, or basement. I even heard of a couple who kept theirs under the kitchen sink. Basically, you have a box containing red worms, who eat your kitchen waste, leaving castings behind. It's the castings that you use in your garden in the same way that you use compost. Red worms are sensitive to temperature fluctuations, and don't do well in below freezing or above about 100 degrees F. Not something you can just leave out in the open yard if it freezes for much of winter. But the vermicomposters can be kept in the garage for winter, or up against the house on a sheltered porch.
A tumbling composter, (now that's been my composting dream), may have odors, so should still be located away from doors and windows. Tumblers are enclosed, and raised off the ground, making it difficult for animals to get in. The tumbler on wheels has the advantage of when the compost is complete, you can wheel it anywhere you want to use the finished product. This will save me, and my back, a lot of shoveling and hauling. For the winter months, I will locate my composter near the back door, moving it back to its station behind the garden, when the weather warms in spring (and odors become more pronounced). With it so near to the house, I may be more inclined to dump my bucket in inclement weather.
We compost more than just yard waste, fruit scraps and veggie bits. We also compost egg shells, the odd paper napkin that passes through our house, toilet paper tubes, paper labels from jars and bottles, lightweight cardboard food boxes, newspaper, and egg cartons. Basically, you want a mix of green material (kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, green garden refuse) and brown material (paper, cardboard, dried leaves and dried garden refuse).
Yes, composting is the "green" way to get rid of kitchen scraps and garden refuse, but it also reduces our garbage collection bill, extends the life of our in-sink garbage disposal, and gives us free soil amendment for our gardens.
What are your thoughts on composting?
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