We Bought a Composter!

Ever since we bought our house, I’ve been so excited to buy a composter.  We never had a yard before and I can’t believe it took me this long (3 months) to finally purchase one.  We eat a ton of fresh fruit and veggies and I hate throwing away all of those scraps.  My sisters and I bought my mom a composter several years ago, so I’m pretty familiar with how to make compost – and I (we) vow to spin ours more often than she does!

I researched and compared the heck out of composters available through Amazon – mom got us an Amazon gift card for a housewarming gift so I thought it would be the perfect thing to buy with it.  There are all kinds of sizes and types, but I went with one that is similar to the one that we bought for her – in that it’s on a frame off the ground (so it won’t kill the grass underneath and is easier to empty into a bin), and it’s set horizontally instead of vertically.  Some of the others are fastened to the frame vertically (if that makes sense), so that when you spin them, the compost would fall back and forth between the longer sides, which makes me think that it could tip or stress the frame because the heaviest part wouldn’t be attached to the frame.

We bought her the Achla Designs CMP-05 Spinning Composter Horizontal, which is a little bigger than the one we chose, but it is also $50 more.

We (I) chose the Tumbling Composter for $105.00 with free shipping.  It has great reviews and is different than hers in that it has two separate compartments to make two batches at a time.  I went back and forth whether this is a good thing or not, but I couldn’t really come up with any negatives.  We’ll start with one side and when that gets full and starts “cooking” we’ll fill up the other side.  Hopefully by the time that one is filled, we’ll be ready to empty the first side.  If it seems to get full too quickly, I think we’ll diy a separate bin that we can add the “cooking” compost to.  We’ll just get a garbage can that has a tight fitting lid, add some holes for air and drainage, and fill that with the finished or finishing batches.  We could have just started composting with a garbage can like that, but I wanted a spinning composter because they are supposed to make compost a little faster without the effort of stirring with a pitchfork or shovel.

Isn’t she a beauty?  We need to get a little countertop bucket so we can collect scraps in the kitchen to dump into the bin every few days.  They usually have a charcoal filter to help with any odor, though I’m not sure my mom has ever changed the filter in her bucket, and I’ve never noticed an odor.  I’ll probably look at World Market for one of those because I always get coupons to use there, so it will be cheaper than on Amazon.

Any composting experience to share with me?