I was just out frolicking in the breezy backyard when I remembered something: I never got Dave to blog about his birthday present this year. Therefore, I will do it for him.
This is it. Earthmaker - the aerobic composter. I spent a long time searching for a backyard composter since the demise of the ComposTumbler this past spring. The original plan was to simply replace the Tumbler with another until, after reading a few online reviews, realized that it was not Katrina that destroyed that unit afterall. We had assumed that when the rotating handle fell off from rust - it was a flood-related problem.. And I'm sure that accelerated the process. However, online reviews in areas not inundated by hurricanes complained of the same thing over relatively short periods of time. Not at all acceptable for a piece of equipment that can cost as much as $700.
Not only that - but we both started to realize that it was not the ComposTumbler that we had fallen in love with in the first place: It was composting. The Tumbler claims faster composting if you turn the crank handle every day... And that may even be true! However... We didn't always turn the handle every day. What happens when you don't turn the handle? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If I leave a pile of leaves in the back corner of the yard for 6 months - the bottom layer will start to compost. If I leave a pile of leaves in a ComposTumbler for 6 months - I get a pile of rotten leaves and a few million nasty insects.
We also had a problem overfilling our cute little backyard Tumbler... There are a lot of people in this house - we produce a lot of kitchen scraps. As for garden 'clippings' (doesn't that sound dainty?) -- we produce mountains of those.
I was looking for something that didn't cost $700 - didn't have any parts to rust - didn't require cranking once a day - would produce compost unattended if necessary - that kept out mice, rats, and curious toddlers, and would allow us to add materials pretty much continuously.
The Earthmaker is what I came up with. I r smart. We like it so far although we haven't had it long enough to produce any finished compost. Still -- I've been impressed with how fast the material added has broken down and the capacity is great (I'm saying this before the big fall garden clean-out.... We'll see what I think then). It looks good, has a small footprint, and makes people say "What the heck is that?" And it's from New Zealand.
Only problem - guessing from all the flyers packed in the box telling us what to do if we found broken parts upon unpacking (which we did) -- this thing has a tendency to get a little rattled in shipping. Fortunately - customer service is good and no major problems.
We'll be sure to follow-up here on the blog with our results in a few weeks.
2 comments:
In my old house in California, I did the pile of leaves in the back of the yard, eventually the bottom layer turns to compost thing. So I think I did not realize that composting is actually harder than that.
Now in New England, I have no deciduous trees (sniffle), but the grass guy puts grass clippings in a wire compost bin I got. I know they should be left on the grass, but the lawn grows like a weed, and he doesn't come that often so they get too long for that.
What is happening with the grass clippings is I get dense hard to fork around sludgy stuff. Back to the drawing board. I am not paying $200 for a composter, though :-)
This is what I have, which I got for $40
http://www.gardeners.com/Wire%20Bin%20Composter/20706,34-646RS,default,cp.html
along with a lid for $12 which I turned out not to need.
Grass clippings will mat easily in a compost pile so they're usually added in thin layers (I actually keep ours in a bin something like yours and only add a few handfuls to the composter when I throw in kitchen scraps.) - BUT since I take it you're only composting those... It seems like leaving some of the grass out to dry out completely (like until it's brown) and mixing that into the wet pile would help?
My very first compost pile ever was just like that.. I had really heavy slime with a crispy outer shell. It was one of my neighbors who corrected me and told me to add something dry and something wet every time I added to the pile (or 'brown' and 'green' is how he put it, I think).
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