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Re: Compost

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Janet,

These things exist, the TumbleBug, the Orb and some others coming to mind.
For mixing greens and browns  (that'd be feedstock and bedding to you
wormheads) I have even seen little Odjob concrete mixers touted over in Worm
Digest.

For mixing potting soils or for mixing compost-alfalfa meal-rock dust
fertilizers for lawns and gardens, a Rubbermaid wheelie trash can works
great, and you can sift everything into it as the need be, using one of my
unpatented but clever Cantopper compost sifters, for which instructions are
still available free via email for anyone who wants them.

The Blackwall tumbler sold by Lee Valley is essentially a trash can on a
stand that lets it tumble end for end, the support bar supposedly helps
break up the little balls that can form in other tumblers, although some
have mixing fins designed to do that.

Just for the record, some books have plans for tumblers, such as the latest
Rodale book. Like anything else with moving parts they do wear out
eventually;  the EZ Spin I had started to show rust on day 7, and I sent it
back.

Turning a little eleven or twelve cubic foot pile is not so much work, but
no-turning it with rebar or with a good dose of worms is even less....so I
just keep my hand on my wallet when them tumbler sellers come tumblin'
along, like so many tumbleweeds....

For best results mixing things with a trash can, and for operating a
tumbler, fill it no more than two-thirds full or less. As always, the more
shredded up and balanced in green and browness the compostables are, and the
more they are just the right moisture level, not too wet or dry, the better
everything will go.

Frank Teuton----he has seen them, advertised, demonstrated, and promoted,
and has the view that compost does happen, not in 14 days, but in a month or
four....for the really good stuff.
-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Wintermute <jwintermute@erols.com>
To: Square Foot Gardening List <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Saturday, April 01, 2000 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: Compost


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>At 06:51 AM 3/31/00 -0600, Summer wrote:
>
>>I just coughed up a chunk of change and bought a ComposTumbler
>>(http://www.compostumber.com). They let you pay it out, it makes compost
>>really
>>fast and keeps it all hidden. A friend of mine at work has two and swears
by
>>them.
>
>I look forward to hearing from you again toward the end of this gardening
>season.  Some posters to rec.gardens in the past (1995-96) were not all
>that satisfied with the ComposTumbler, and it does cost a bundle.
>
>What I don't fully comprehend is why one couldn't make one's own
>compostumbler-type device by putting the materials for decomposition into,
>say, a big plastic trash barrel with tightfitting lid, carving some holes
>in the sidewalls for ventilation, and then rolling it around right on the
>ground periodically to reposition the stuff inside.
>
>Isn't that basically what's happening to the materials inside the official
>ComposTumbler?  Does having the apparatus up on legs make any difference in
>the M.O. really?
>
>--Janet
>
>
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