Wormery | Back Porch Compost Tumbler

Back Porch Compost Tumbler

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Using a back porch compost tumbler is a fairly simple process to recycle the organic waste that your home produces into rich compost for your garden, house plants, and yard.  Once you have the compost tumbler set up, there are three easy steps to follow – adding organic waste, turning the compost tumbler, and removing the finished compost.  Most manufacturers claim that the process can be completed in as little as 14 days – although in my experience it takes more like a couple of months depending on the temperature outside and how well you balance the mix of wet and dry ingredients.  Unlike compost piles, tumblers are considerably more portable and are enclosed to protect against attracting wild animals like raccoons to your pile.  If you have dogs in the yard but still want to compost, a tumbler will keep them from rooting around in the kitchen scraps.

Back porch compost tumblers are perfectly suited to homes and apartments that don’t produce a large volume of yard waste to recycle.  The smaller size fits conveniently on the porch or deck without taking up too much space and is not difficult to rotate in order to aerate the composting materials inside.  These compost tumblers are not well suited to homeowners that want to recycle larger volumes of yard waste as the material simply won’t fit and will become cumbersome to turn.

Adding Organic Waste to a Back Porch Compost Tumbler

When you are ready to begin composting, you will need to start collecting kitchen scraps and other organic waste to add to the compost tumbler.  Just like a wormery, there are certain types of food wastes that don’t do well when added in high proportions to the compost pile.  For a small size like a porch model, you will want to avoid adding large quantities of acidic foods like citrus peels, and avoid meat, dairy, and oily foods all together.  The high acid concentration in citrus can kill off some of the bacteria that you need to properly break down the organic material, but you can add them in moderation.  Meat, dairy, and oily foods don’t break down well in a compost tumbler and can lead to bad smells or animal problems even with an enclosed system.

Composting works through a balance of nitrogen rich and carbon rich materials.  Kitchen scraps are the “wet” nitrogen rich ingredients.  Yard waste, leaves, sawdust, and scrap paper add the “dry” carbon rich ingredients.  Try to balance out your nitrogen to carbon ratio at about one part wet ingredients to three parts dry ingredients.  If your back porch tumbler starts to smell bad (and you haven’t added meat, cheese, or oily products), it’s a good bet that you aren’t adding enough carbon rich ingredients.  The addition of some leaves or shredded paper should correct the problem.

Aerating Your Back Porch Compost Tumbler

For the fastest results, you will need to aerate your compost regularly.  Give the drum about five good turns each day.  Not turning your system daily won’t hurt your tumbler; it will only increase the amount of time it takes to produce the compost.  If you are adding kitchen scraps every day to the tumbler, just remember to do the turning after adding new materials.  Turning the compost unit does more than just aerate the inside.  It will also help keep higher temperatures inside the bin which help provide the best environment for developing compost.  Eventually nature will run its course and your garbage will be transformed into what gardeners refer to as black gold.

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