One way in which inventions have changed over time, is the compost bins having features that make composting easier for you. Compost Tumblers do just this by making it super easy to aerate and mix the contents of your compost bin.
The main advantage of compost tumblers are that they are easy to mix and aerate the contents which helps increase the temperature of the compost to aid the process of composting so you get useful compost much faster than cold composting.
Aeration of a standard garden compost bin is hard work, and often not done, so the tumblers play their part in helping you with this task.
You should turn your compost 2-3 times a week.
As tumblers are designed to aerate the compost, they should not smell bad. You may get a nice earthy-organic fragrance, but not a horrible smell like you would from a compost bin that you would leave at the back of the garden that goes cold, wet and slimy!
As the tumblers are elevated, they are less prone to mice/rats.
Composting can take anywhere from 8 weeks to 24 weeks to mature and be ready to be applied to your garden. When it’s ready you can use it as a mulch over the top of your existing soil in your borders, or dig it into your borders and veg patch.
In practice, you should operate your tumbler the same as you would a ‘hot composter’. This means keeping the right balance of green and brown materials, monitoring the temperature, and turning to aerate the bin.
Good compost tumblers will have two sections where you fill one compost unit up, and leave it to mature, whilst filling up your second unit. By the time your second unit is full, your first unit will be ready to use. Depending on your circumstances, you can add more units to keep a steady supply of compost. This practice can be used with any compost bin set up, not just tumblers…
It’s very important to get a good sturdy compost tumbler to cope with the weight of the contents. My recommendation is the Maze tumbler range which I have tried, tested and inspected closely. They have an excellent handle system using gears to make it easier to turn when full. The base is extremely sturdy and I like the door signs that you can put on the side to know which side to add to and which is being left to mature. On top of that the larger option gives you a huge 245 litre capacity. You can even get a cool trolley that makes collecting the compost simple.
It’s also made from 90% recycled plastic and you get a five-year guarantee :)
View the Maze Compost Tumblers
Due to issues with supplying these in the UK I am no longer providing these.
