How Not to Compost
A tour of the neighborhood alleys will reveal numerous contraptions like this one. You put your kitc
hen and yard scraps in the top and compost is supposed to come out the bottom. Well, it's coming out alright. Probably attracting rats too. No doubt the refuse in there gets hot, but compost needs to be turned. There's not really an easy way to do that with these tower-type composters. How do you compost?
I use wire fencing wrapped in a loop, then when it’s time to turn, I just lift the fence off, and move the fence next to the pile and shovel the pile back in with a pitchfork: new stuff is now on the bottom, old stuff is on top, and I use the really good stuff at the bottom to top-dress the garden. I hate the black plastic composters, they don’t get good aeration, and they don’t allow enough moisture to get in, so they get filled with ants.
Great points, csb. I guess with this one, you could just pick up the plastic walls and put it back together a few feet over and then pitchfork or shovel the pile back in. Moving the compost pile is a great way to turn it. The City sold discounted composters at one point. Was this one of them? Is that deal still going on?
If this is your composter, I’m sorry for singling you out for this teachable moment. You are not alone. I have this one here:
http://www.gardeners.com/Compost-Tumbler/37-459,default,pd.html?SC=XNET8033&utm_campaign=cse&mr:trackingCode=0D484790-0479-E111-929E-0019B9C2BEFD&mr:referralID=NA&origin=pla&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=9376715017&mr:keyword={keyword}
and it stinks! I mean, when I don’t put enough roughage in there and it doesn’t get hot enough, then it just smells like a sewer. But, it’s easy to turn and my garden loves the black gold it produces.
That is not like the one we bought from the city. It was also a tower type, but was not built so that it could come apart like that. We had a lot of luck with the tower one we bought from the city. I think it was earth machine brand, or something like that. Occasionally we would turn over the compost, but it received little attention from us and produced great compost.