Have you ever wondered where your egg shells, cardboard, and raw veggie trimmings end up? Well, if you just throw them into the trash bag, they end up in a landfill and spend forever in a plastic bag that never decomposes. If you have become more eco-friendly, and you like to garden, then why not invest in composting tumblers?
Most of us have heard of composting; piling up kitchen scraps and yard trimmings that over time turn into nutrient rich compost to use around your home, whether in your outdoor garden or houseplants. But sometimes residential codes don’t allow open compost piles, and quiet frankly they can be unsightly and animals will forage through them.
An easy answer is composting tumblers. They are compact and can fit just about anywhere around your home. They also come in many different colors to match your home color or blend into your backyard landscaping without being obtrusive.
A big advantage of composting tumblers as opposed to a compost bin is that the tumbler is more compact and much easier to ‘turn’ the contents of the container. This is rather obvious in the name…composting tumblers. You simply put your scraps into the tumbler and a few times a day, you just turn the crank to mix everything up.
With a compost bin, you have to use a rake or shovel to dig deep down to turn the compost, which is not very easy. Also, with a compost tumbler, you can add worms and organic starters and accelerators more easily and incorporate them more efficiently into the compost, simply by turning the handle.
Here is a list of materials that can be used in a compost tumbler to create a rich, wonderful addition to your gardening soil:
Organic additives:
Manure: hobby animals such as chickens, sheep, horses, and goats.
Raw fruit and vegetable trimmings
Coffee grounds
Cardboard
Crustacean shells (raw)
Fish and fish bones (raw)
Eggshells
Leaves and small twigs
Mushrooms
Paper
Seaweed
Tree bark
Inorganic Additives:
Sand
Agricultural lime
Rock dust
Seashells
Soil
An easy way to transport your kitchen compost to your compost tumbler is by using a covered steel or ceramic counter container that you can empty daily.
Want to be even more eco-friendly? How about a combination compost tumble and rain barrel? Simply attach the rain barrel to a gutter down spout (there are several ways to accomplish this) and wait for it to rain to collect water for watering your plants and composting at the same time! The composter sits on top of the rain barrel and has a drain to let ‘compost tea’ drip into the rain water to create a nutrient rich plant food.
So start thinking about what you are throwing into the trash can and think how much you can help Mother Nature and yourself by using composting tumblers. iced coffee cup with straw