Compost Tumblers For Sale

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If you’re thinking about starting up a family-friendly composting project, why not consider doing one that involves worms? That’s right, worm composting, also known as vermicomposting, is a fun-filled way to get the compost you desire for your garden. All you and your kids have to do is keep the worms happy by feeding them and they’ll do all the work for you. Here’s how you get started:

All you need is a plastic 10 gallon worm bin with drainage holes on the bottom (home made or store bought is just fine), a tight fitting lid to keep the worms in the dark, moist bedding made out of one inch newspaper strips or sawdust, a pound of red wiggler worms that you can get from your local fish bait shop or from internet retailer sites like Composters.com, and some food waste like banana peels, fruit rinds and vegetable stalks. Be sure to keep in mind that this will get a bit messy, so it might be best to do this outside especially if you’re children are going to be involved. If it gets messy, it’s okay!

Start by halfway filling the worm bin with the newspaper strips; moisten the strips once you’ve reached the halfway mark. Once the newspaper is damp, push it to one side of the bin and repeat the process until the bin is full but not entirely packed and make sure there are no standing puddles collecting at the bottom. Add half a cup of sawdust or soil so that the worms have some grit to work with. Go ahead and add your pound of worms and watch as they wiggle their way down into the soil and newspaper. Next, bury your food waste into the bedding a few inches deep and cover the bedding with a five page blanket of damp newspapers.

After a few days you should notice some positive results – the worms are digging in and out of the bedding, eating the food waste, soil and newspaper, digesting it and leaving behind worm castings (explain to your kids that it’s poop!). It’s the worm castings that you really want for your garden. To keep your worms happy keep adding food wastes every few days or so and they’ll keep producing that rich black gold for you. Have fun and don’t be afraid to get down and dirty!

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Adding organic material into your compost can sometimes be a sticky situation, especially if you’re new to the composting game. You’ve probably heard of some stuff called “green matter” and “brown matter,” too. Now, as gross as that may sound to some of you, it’s really not what you think. This all stems back to the carbon/nitrogen ration (C/N ratio). Green matter, which is chock full of nitrogen, usually consists of yard wastes such as grass clippings and non-diseased weeds, fruit scraps and humus. Chicken manure and rotted manure also falls under this category. Brown matter, which is full of carbon, would usually be dried leaves, hay, sawdust and wood chips.

How much green matter to brown matter you want to throw into your compost bin is really up to you. However, there are a couple formulas you can start with until you find the right plan that works for you. The first thing you should keep in mind is to achieve the ideal batch of hot, fast compost is to try to stick to the 30:1 ratio. With 30 parts carbon for every 1 part of nitrogen, all the beneficial microbes will be able to reproduce and decompose all the organic matter quickly and efficiently. An easy method I use to achieve this ratio is by mixing half of the brown matter and half of the green matter by weight. Keep in mind though that yard waste and food scraps weigh more than dried leaves and hay so there’s a possibility that you’ll have to include three to four times the amount of brown matter to reach the same weight of your green matter.

Once you’ve got your own formula (or are even using the 30:1 formula), it’s time to start throwing everything into your compost tumbler or bin. Assuming you’ll be composting in your backyard, set up your compost bin in a shady area and near a water source. Throw in a pile of dried leaves that’ll fill up about eight inches in your bin and turn the hose on it to dampen them just a bit. Afterward add in some green matter like grass; remember to keep in mind the half greens, half browns weight. Mix well so that everything is evenly distributed and damp. For an added boost, sprinkle on some rich soil, but not a shovel full!

Check on your compost regularly to make sure that nothing’s too damp or too dry, and to make sure your pile is shrinking. After a few weeks and regular turning of the pile you should have some ready made compost to use in your garden.

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Looking for an activity the entire family can participate in that is educational, good for the planet and fun? Look no further than composting. Starting a compost pile in your backyard is one of the best ways to make a positive impact on the health of the environment and, on a smaller scale, the health of your plants and garden. Children of all ages can participate in some way and will learn invaluable lessons about how organic matter breaks down and the importance of keeping waste out of your county landfill. And, you’ll be helping to prepare the next generation of composters to continue to do their part for the planet.

We all know recycling is important, and hopefully it has become an engrained part of your family’s daily routine. But once that plastic bottle or paper wrapper ends up in its assigned barrel, your work is finished. And unless you go visit a waste treatment facility or recycling plant, chances are its pretty much a mystery to most what actually becomes of our recycled waste. Composting puts you in charge of the entire process. Your compost bin or tumbler is the recycling facility and you are the head of waste management, at least for a good portion of your food scraps and yard waste.

If you maintain a garden or even just have some basic plants and flowers around your home, composting is the ideal way to keep them healthy and really, to give them what they need to thrive. Finished compost, or humus, added to your soil acts as a pH buffer and helps your soil retain moisture and oxygen. Humus can also cool the soil surface and help deter erosion by encouraging a vigorous root system bolstered by the added nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and other nutrients present. If you’re not the gardening type, simply donate your finished humus to a friend or family member with a green thumb or even to your local gardening center.

To get started, a simple compost bin or compost tumbler is recommended, along with one of the many guides or how-to books on the market. These should list the items that are good for your compost pile and those that are not. Pay special attention to this – not all waste is good for your compost pile. There is an optimum nitrogen – carbon ratio a composter should strive for, and adding the wrong food scraps or lawn and garden waste could ruin the whole batch.

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Composting can be a lot of fun for anyone, from avid gardeners to novices alike. But one of the misconstrued beliefs that arise when people think of composting is that it’s the result of smelly garbage that hasn’t been properly disposed of, which in turn is a recipe for pests and all sorts of other trouble. This myth is exactly that, a myth! Contrary to popular belief, composting is an organic process that creates nutrient rich soil, popularly known as black gold, from leftover food scraps and yard waste. If done properly, your compost should not emit a foul odor, but rather a fresh, earthy smell.

To ensure that you will have a successful compost heap and experience, here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin:

Assuming you live in a city or municipality that does not allow open compost heaps, go ahead and invest in a compost bin or compost tumbler. Having one place to add all your organic matter in to will make the composting process much easier, and in most cases will keep the process on a regularly consistent decomposing speed.

The next step is to start collecting organic matter to place into your compost bin. Food scraps such as cut up pieces of fruit rinds, cabbage leaves, vegetable stalks and coffee grounds make for great composting. Coffee grounds are especially excellent for the composting process because they act as activators, which create heat for your compost pile. Just remember to never add meat and dairy products, bones, fats and oils to your compost; these products won’t decompose properly, smell foul after a couple hours, and attract pests. Yard waste such as non-diseased weeds and plants, grass clippings and leaves are essential for your compost since they’re rich in nitrogen.

To nip the problem of pests, rodents and other wildlife rummaging around in your compost right in the butt, here are a few tips to keep in mind. Generally, animals are attracted by the smell of meat, dairy products and fatty foods; adding these items is like giving an open invitation for wildlife to invade your compost. In addition, you should always be sure to have a tight fitting lid on your bin or tumbler so that none of your compost is exposed.

If done correctly, your finished product should smell earthy and not putrid. Once you have enough organic matter, it’s time to add this rich, black gold into your garden’s soil to prolong a fruitful life for your garden. Remember, it’s all a trial and error process, so be sure to have fun!

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Composting education drive is another way to ensure that you are able to pass on the legacy to younger generations. But packaging the teaching method is another aspect that the composting enthusiast must not overlook. There are various ways of teaching composting to adults, but children have different needs and may require more than the expertise of monitoring your heap’s temperature. Here are different techniques for teaching composting methods to children. It can really be fun and rewarding to pass on the baton to younger kids once you have gotten the hang of composting, and it will really help bring about awareness to their parents and other members of the community. Use Visuals Nothing beats the boring feeling a kid gets from pure text. Unless the kid is inclined to enjoy pure words, visuals are your best bet into inculcating a love for composting. Make use of pictures, Powerpoint presentations and other technological devices you can use. If you are on an impromptu teaching class, use your words to help the kids visualize the scenario of composting. In any case, encourage the children to imagine the entire process. Do a complete demo The demonstration will be able to teach volumes to the children, way more than any discussion can. With a demonstration, you not only show them how it’s done, you also show them that you are well capable of doing what you are teaching them. Seeing the actions in real time will also eliminate the need for them to ask questions should their turn for trying it comes since they will be able to present their questions as you do your demo. Track for feedback Kids can get opinionated about things that they like. Strike their fancy even further by getting feedbacks from them from time to time. Also, ask them and encourage them to ask their questions to you. Removing their inhibitions will help you teach them more concepts than when you are dealing with an uptight bunch, Entertain all questions and give ample time to answering each question. Kids can get easily discouraged. So make sure that you are able to reserve judgment and entertain questions, no matter how “stupid” or minor they may seem to you. Remember, you are dealing with children here. If at all possible, have an assistant teacher who is also a kid to help you gain a better perspective of teaching composting to children. Discuss benefits at the outset so they will know what composting is really for. If the children are oriented from the outset that what they are doing has great significance, they are more likely to cooperate and do the tasks cheerfully. Ensure that you are fully able to help them understand how composting helps the environment and how it will make a positive difference to a majority of people. Let them do it, and refuse to interfere if possible. The main purpose for educating them on composting is to have them equipped with the skills they need to be able to do composting themselves. So, seeing them do the composting, even on a small pit for beginners, may help you see where potential problems may lie. You can also easily praise them and correct them as necessary. In any case, encourage them for every form of progress made, no matter how small it is, so as to help build their confidence.

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Composting is no easy task. It requires hard work, dedication, and persistence—unless, of course, you own a compost tumbler . In that case, composting requires little work, some dedication, and not much persistence at all, all while mixing compost the same way you would with a giant compost heap in the backyard. How easy is that?

Although open composting has its advantages, using a compost tumbler saves time and keeps your compost pile aerated with little effort. Instead of manually turning over your compost pile, a compost tumbler does the work for you in its internal chamber. There’s no need to turn over your compost with a pitchfork; you simply turn it—no fuss, no muss. By keeping it aerated with just a few turns every few days, you can rest assured that the microbes are actively eating and decomposing the matter. All you really need to do is carry your kitchen scraps out to your compost tumbler , throw them in, and turn.

The compost tumbler doesn’t just stop at minimizing the work time needed to compost. Some tumblers are built raised off the ground, while others maximize heat absorption, which makes your compost decompose faster. Some include dual chambers that allow mixing up compost while throwing in new scraps, thereby aerating old compost and allowing for new stuff to decompose. Then there are tumblers with screened vents to ensure even air flow. Many tumblers come with optional tea collectors that create “compost tea”, a nutritious liquid drawn from food decomposition. It sounds gross, but that’s probably because it’s not for drinking; it’s an excellent dilute fertilizer. Moreover, open compost piles can attract rodents and other creatures. Let’s just say it could get hairy. But if your compost pile is in a tumbler, it’s well protected from the animal kingdom.

Give your flower bed a breath of fresh (er, actually, not-so-fresh) “black gold”. Turn your waste into something useful. Help save the environment. Composting allows you to do all that, and the compost tumbler allows you to do so without much maintenance needed. Alleviate the stress and labor that comes with composting the old-fashioned way and get yourself a tumbler! Now, wasn’t that easy?

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Well to make your lawn look fresh, green and lively it is a brilliant idea to try a compost tumbler. Although to make a compost is not an easy job, it needs time, skill and hardwork. Compost added to flower beds, grasses, plants and vegetable fields aids its better development and they indeed thrive well. Compost tumbler is much simpler and does not take too much time comparatively. You can get a great variety of products needed to compost with a lot of different techniques, similar to the compost bin, but the compost tumbler is the best and an efficient method to compost. While composting you might seem frustrated due to the odor released while decomposition of biodegradable waste, which is further converted to active, fertilized and organic rich soil. The tiny bacteria called microbes aid in decomposition process that die while compost because of the lack of sufficient oxygen, this compost is deserted for some time and thus gives out odor. As the compost remains neglected it takes time to decay. To avoid all this trouble and to save much time and energy, a compost tumbler is your finest option. A compost tumbler is easy and convenient to manage as the biodegradable waste is turned into organic rich soil in a small span of time and the compost tumbler is never ignored, turned frequently and nor does it smell, isn’t that wonderful? Usually the decaying process takes a lengthy time from six months to twenty four months! And all this depends on the sort of waste decayed. But the compost tumblers are far more useful and quicker as the humus is developed in less than a month or two, for which you have to pay a little of attention. Therefore, the decaying period for a compost tumbler is half the period needed in other techniques. While buying a compost tumbler you need to pay attention on certain points so as to get a sensible and a helpful item for decomposition. A range of sizes, shapes and materials are offered in compost tumblers. According to your own particular requirements, height of the tumbler and your physical potency, you pick from the range. But then these compost tumblers do not actually need a lot of effort to turn it. The next thing is to see what material the compost tumbler is made up of. The best one is food grade material that is used in its manufacture, as its very tough, it saves from UV rays and is very ever-lasting. Some may include metal parts but then these tumblers get corroded because of climatic conditions. Food grade plastic material is the best option as it gives proper warmth for the bacteria to survive in the compost. Lastly you need to check whether it is simple to move as there are some conditions when you may sense the necessity to shift your filled compost tumbler to different location for valid reasons, so chose a model which has wheels that helps you to move the tumbler around the lawn, turning it while shifting around. Hence make an intelligent choice by picking a perfect compost tumbler that is mobile and an excellent material appropriate for compost to decay better. To get greener lawns and gardens use the best compost tumbler that is useful, mobile and simple to handle. This is an excellent and easy way of composting with a compost tumbler.

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To restate a popular phrase: “compost happens” and indeed it does. Make a pile of shredded leaves and grass clippings, stir it up every now and then and as long as it gets rained on occasionally you will eventually get compost. Worms and microscopic creatures will do their thing. While this process is simple enough it does have drawbacks. Not everyone has a good location for this pile of compost wannabe. Another problem is that it is hard to control the moisture level of an open pile of composting material which you do not want to wet or too dry. With the open pile design you can not readily remove some compost when you are ready for it, you need to wait until the pile has finished composting. Therefore you may end up with multiple piles of compost that are at various stages of completion.

To help address some of these issues we have come up with ways to improve the process. Many people use upright bins to compost. These can be as simple as a frame of shipping pallets on their sides to form a box. This type of composter will certainly help to make your composting more than just a spreading pile. This type of composting will also allow more critical oxygen to reach all areas of the composting material. You will also find it still fairly easy to mix up the composting material. Two problems still remain. First this is still primarily a batch process and second, moisture control is difficult unless you tarp the container.

There are newer manufactured bins that come closer to getting it right, with the idea being that you add the material in the top and remove compost from some type of drawer in the bottom as you need it. The concept sounds good but with many of these composters it is difficult to properly mix up and add air (aerate) the compost. Even if you are able to do a good job stirring it up you are back to basically a batch process without the planned downward and out flow. Yet if you do not stir it up well and just keep adding material to the top, the lack of oxygen will greatly slow or halt the composting process with this type of composter.

The next big step in composter evolution was to move to a simple drum style compost tumbler. Basically, a barrel was attached to some type of stand that allowed it to be rotated. This was a real leap in composting technology because you now could monitor and control moisture content, thoroughly mix and aerate the composting material and the composting could take place on a tidy enclosed space. For all of the advantages, one big drawback still remained. This was the ongoing problem of the batch nature of almost all composters. How could a composter be designed so that the composting would continue as an ongoing process with finished compost removed as it is needed? The answer was the development of a composter with a drum inside of a drum. This double drum system allows material to be added through a door in the side of the outer drum and as it breaks down into compost it will exit out a discharge port in the end of the rotating drum. This development has solved the last of the major hurdles to effective backyard composting. No more batch composting! With this type of composter, a good mix of greens and browns, and a little water, you will get your first compost in a few weeks and keep producing throughout the warm part of the year or all year long in warm climates.

If you are looking for the fastest most practical backyard composter, you really need to consider a composter that incorporates the double drum technology. Another benefit we have found is that children love to see how the compost seems to magically appear from the output port even though it was grass and leaves etc. that was added to the feed port moments before rotating the drum. This has allowed these high tech composters to be an interesting educational tool to help us impress upon children how they can be involved in the stewardship of our fragile earth. 

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Composting is a natural and simple process and yet it has been complicated by machines, fallacies, misinformation, myths, and misunderstandings that came out due to erroneous publications and aggressive commercial marketing approaches. Some of these misinformed facts have been passed around so many times that the general perception has become truth. An example would be the seemingly accepted fact that all compost smells. But before we go into that, let’s discuss some other composting myths first.

Myth: Composting requires a lot of work

Truth: Composting is a natural process which involves basically the elements of nature doing the job for you. All you need is to gather all the materials, lay it on, and let nature do her job. Composting is a low maintenance activity as well. You only need to turn the compost file every once in a while to keep the air flowing to quicken the decomposition process and that’s it. You practically sit and wait for the the compost to finish.

Myth: Composting is limited to farms and wide open spaces

Truth: On the contrary, people living in urban areas who have no luxury for space can create their own composting bin from a trash can. How much space would that take up? Also, there is another technique which you can use, the so-called vermicomposting which involves the use of red worms in a contained bin where you feed them table scraps.

Myth: Composting needs precise measurements

Truth: Even though composting ideally would be best achieved with the right combination of greens and browns elements, having the exact measurements is not that necessary. Estimates work just fine. And those neatly piled up layers of composting piles you see in commercials, books, pamphlets and brochures of composting products, those are all for show. You don’t need to copy those, composting works the same way as you pile them up haphazardly.

Myth: You need specially formulated chemicals as starters or activators

Truth: Well, despite the claims of commercially available products that applying them to the compost pile will speed up the process of decomposition, buying them is not really necessary. It is often the practice to just throw in some finished compost into the newly formed compost pile and that itself will serve as the activator to get things started. There’s no need to buy those expensive stuff.

Myth: Adding yeast will boost the compost’s performance Truth: This is not true at all. What you’re doing is just wasting your money by adding yeast to the compost pile. Yeast does not do anything to the compost pile and neither does it affect the performance quality of the compost.

Myth: Animals are attracted to composting piles

Truth: Yes, this to some degree is true. Composting piles do attract the occasional cat, dog or raccoon. Small critters will likely go for open compost piles and for piles that have kitchen scraps like meat, fat, dairy products, bones and pet manure to the pile.

Myth: Compost smells

Truth: Compost should not smell. If you find bad smelling compost, then the maker did a poor job picking the materials for the compost pile. Other composting myths exist and it would be best to do your research first before accepting them as truth.

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We have found a good composter for your consideration. It is on a 32 inch stand and works well. This would be a great way to start composting at a cheap price! The seller is asking $150. (more…)