I'm considering buying a small compost tumbler. Preliminary browsing has me leaning towards an Envirocycle tumbler. Anybody wanna offer some advice?
Google Shopping search results: http://www.google.com/products?q=Envirocycle+compost&btnG=Search+Products&show=li&scoring=p
my experience is thus: they make compost fairly quickly if you fill them all in one load, and turn a few times a week. OR you can fill them gradually, and it can take quite awhile to make compost because they don't heat up enough all at once.
If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't buy one unless I had a more discreet place to put it, it stands out like a sore thumb near the back patio, but that is close to the back door and I fill it gradually using kitchen materials. In the summer I hope to move it back nearer the shed, not as convenient but out of sight.
My compost heap looks like a raised vegetable bed, and will be one next year.
Forgot one thing to add; everything must be in pretty small pieces when you start the process. Large leaves, dried plants, etc. should be cut up or chopped. My shredded newspaper tends to roll up into balls.
my 2cents
This message was edited Jan 15, 2008 11:13 PM
I haven't heard anyone who owns one that is thrilled with it. When I posted a thread about "which composter is best" there were no votes for them and quite a few for the biostack.
I'm assuming you have read thatthread Pagancat mentioned; if not you may want to. Although. complainers may be more vocal than satisfied customers.
Like cathy says, it may work if you really keep an eye on it. If it's the one you can handle best, well then, so be it, and take her advice on chopping things before adding, and keep an eye on the moisture , and adding N if you have mostly brown leaves/ paper.
I should mention that I'm in a subdivision, not on a larger lot. If I had more space, this tumbler would be okay, I like not having to dig to drop food stuffs into it.
Pagancat: Did you get that biostack?
Karen
A biostack's along these lines ...
http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Innovations-CMP02-Pyramid-Composter/dp/B000667U5G/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1200540299&sr=8-2
... right?
I do believe so. And the one pictured on amazon would probably be easier for you to manage from a wheelchair.
That's very important, indeed.
I thought the biostack involved lifting trays.
I think so, Cathy4...I'm trying to remember who was touting them so highly
Don't trust any picture of beautiful fine compost spilling out from the door. It 'don't' Prettty much have to move the bin and reshovel all the contents, sifting as you go. That may be a reason you may prefer your bin with a little height and dumpability, like a tumbler.
I am probably one of those you remember touting the Biostack. I have 2 and they are terrific.
It's not made like that Pyramid composter in the link above. I had one similar to that for years, nearly impossible to flip or mix. When material was removed from that bottom door, the upper stuff would fall down and out of the bin. It had to be stuffed back in, hard to close the door then... generally not user friendly. I couldn't lift the whole bin to flip it.
The Biostack is plastic, made of 3 bottomless tiers. They are not heavy at all. To flip you remove the top tier and place in an adjacent spot and fork material into it. Then remove the second tier and add to the new stack, fork material into it, etc. I am a small middle aged woman and I manage to do it. I don't know how difficult it might be when seated in a wheelchair.
Because I am able to flip and mix the contents I get finished compost much faster than I ever did with one solid bin like the Pyramid one with the door. Now I have 2 of them, I basically use one for actively composting new stuff while the other works as a curing bin. I "borrow" tiers and move from one stack to the other as needed. Often, like now, a batch of almost finish stuff is in a 2 tier stack while I have one with 4 tiers full of leaves to be used in new compost as necessary.
Here's a link to it. If you click "more views" it shows a sketch of a guy flipping the compost and shows how it works.
http://www.smithandhawken.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=prod21199&categoryId=cat120329&sku=21199#section_desc
Karen
PuddlePirate: like Karen, I'm another one who has touted the Biostack, for all the reasons she describes so clearly above. I have three and they work very well for me, because they make tossing the compost relatively easy for another smallish woman like me. I think the "more views" part of the link that Karen gave above gives a very good idea of the actual process--which I hope helps you make your decision about which sort of composting system would work for you.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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