The Natural Remedy Guide

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The decision to start composting is one that will dramatically help your garden and the environment.  Learning how to compost is easy.  It’s a great way to get your children involved and it’s fun too!  So where  do you start?  Basically, there are two types of composting bins to choose from.    Stationary composters (static) that stay put, and compost tumblers that spin, which do the work for you -keeping the materials aerated and mixed.

Stationary compost binsare advantageous in that they are very easy to use,  and they hold a lot more material.  They can hold up to 800 gallons worth of material as compared to most tumbler models that hold around 50 to 80 gallons. If you have a lot  of leaves and grass clippings the stationary bin would be the way to go.  Stationary bins come in many different sizes, shapes and designs.  Round compost bins are advantageous because they are cylindrical and have no corners for bits of material to get stuck and not mixed in.  Rectangular compost bins are good to because of their flat side which makes it easy to place along a fence or wall.  Most compost bins come from recycled plastic, but some are also made from wood or metal. 

Compost tumblers seem to be more popular than the stationary bins because they are so easy to keep aerated.  With a compost tumbler,  all you have to do is push the bin to turn it.  Although they don’t hold as much as the stationary bins, they compost faster since it’s easier to keep the materials mixed and aerated.  Since the organic materials break down pretty fast it’s easy to keep up with the waste.

Ultimately, it comes down to how much waste you have and your personal preference.  There are accessories for stationary  bins that make it easier to mix  like the compost turning tool.  All you do is shove the tool down into the pile and pull it back with the T shaped handle.  There are wings at the end of the tool that mix everything up as you pull doining all the work for you.  Whatever your choice, the important thing is to compost.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Composting, Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.