On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:54:57 -0500, Dan Espen
wrote:

Sean Straw writes:

On Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:02:48 -0500, Dan Espen
wrote:

As for some kind of large rotating bin, no thanks.
I'd spend all winter looking out the window seeing
a large plastic monstrosity.

Situate it on the OTHER side of your barn or garden windbreaks.
Problem solved! g

Barn?

Here in the NJ suburbs I'd guess most people can see every inch
of their yard from the house. Of course if you're already staring
at a shed then you have a place behind it to put more man made clutter.

I think Brooklyn has a good point about the compost being in contact
with the ground. My pile is loaded with worms. I don't see how that
could happen with a tumbler above the ground. The worms won't get in
in the first place and when they do, no matter how deep they burrow,
it's going to still be cold.

If worms are added they won't live long if they can't return to the
earth at will... and it's the microscopic organisms that do the
composting... what worms do is supply microrganisms in their castings.

The bins Brooklyn recommends are a step in the right direction,
but I question the need to actually enclose the compost.

Being of a dark color and enclosed keeps temperature inside the
compost pile higher longer into night and cold seasons, actually
doubles the rate of composting.

Anyway, I'd need about a dozen of them.

Most folks who compost larger volumes maintain a pre-compost pile
where organic material is chopped up finely, dried, and decayed so it
will take up far less volume in the composter. Composting is nothing
more than accelerated topsoil production. It takes a hundred years to
produce one inch of top soil on a forest floor. When composting is
managed correctly one of those composters can accomodate a huge volume
of organic material.