Tumbleweed Compost Maker Tumbler Composter Garden Review

Over the years we've moved six times and have left six compost bins or piles behind - often with no regrets. While the rectangular bins seem popular I wonder how many people buy them a second time. We just left two on this last move. Our Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler will move with us the next time.

What I've never liked about many of commercial bins is the inconvenience of turning the plant and kitchen waste. Heaving the pile, which is always damp, with a garden fork or shovel, is hard work. It's heavy, but it's also painful when I realize my fork's tines just jabbed through some treasured worms. The Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler is easy to turn without using garden tools.

This compost maker resembles a barrel. It's an eight-cubic foot, barrel-shaped, UV-protected polyethylene tub that is suspended on an A-shaped galvanized steel frame. The frame connects with the barrel in the middle which makes it possible to turn the barrel. This turning obviously churns and mixes the contents. The churning and mixing speeds up the content's decomposing process. 

Assembling the tumbler is easy requiring a half hour of time, a screwdriver and a wrench. One person can pull this together in a hurry.  The barrel arrives in two parts with two screened lids and frame pieces. The barrel attaches in the middle and turns on a stainless steel axle. This axle helps aerate and mechanically break-up the contents. The lids secure to the barrel in narrow grooves. One on the top and one on the other top (depending on which end is up) locks in by turning clockwise.  They keep out most rain, but the design also allows for excess rain to drain out the opposite end. The frame keeps this off the ground but leaves you wondering how the decomposing team gets in.

The decomposing team.  I placed sliced and chopped watermelon and cantaloupe rind inside one day and two days later I looked, out of curiosity, to see how the organisms were responding to this treat. They apparently organized a party. Everything was covered with drunken maggots. We cook up fresh compost nearly every thirty days - but we live in a hot climate where winters are comparably warm (average highs in the 50s and 60s).

We Include:

• Chopped kitchen produce waste
• Egg shells, coffee grounds, cereal, rice, pasta, bread
• Grass clippings and leafy yard waste
• Cut flowers (from vases)

We Don't Include:

• Dog waste
• Meat, fish or dairy waste
• Live oak leaves or woody plant material
• Grass with long runners (Bermuda, Saint Augustinegrass)

We don't calculate brown and green ratios. We don't water this compost but rely instead on the released water from plant material, especially fruit. We don't disturb the organism habitat as much with this process as with the bins that required manual turning with tools. We have two dogs and our grass is completely pesticide and fertilizer free.

Compost is generally ready in a month. We've placed ours in a part of the yard with good solar exposure. When the contents are fully cooked and appropriately black and gooey, we open the top lid, place a tarp below the bin and turn so that the contents fall out on the tarp. It's that easy. Our first batch took two months. First we needed to fill the eight-cubic foot bin. During this time the contents were cooking, but always having to start all over each time we added ingredients. After a month it was full and we quit adding waste, but then stored waste in a back-up bin.  The cooking was complete the second month. The contents were emptied into a second holding container (the garden wasn't quite ready for the compost) and we added the contents from the back-up bin (plus a scoop of previously made compost as an inoculation). The second batch was fully done in one month. Using this process we have two going, one that is being built and one that is cooking. (It never smells bad.) Perhaps we should buy a second Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler someday, but until then the back-up trash can works. Our final compost volume is around two cubic feet.

If we realize the contents aren't cooking as fast this winter because the sun's not reaching it, we'll simply move the entire unit the next time it's emptied. This is a much more flexible process than the traditional stationary rectangular bins. When we move (and we will), this can be disassembled and cleaned, packed for the move and reassembled for our new yard. Our current yard is a smaller urban lot; the neighborhood frowns upon non-traditional landscaping that includes construction of compost bins. We consider this not only an attractive option but a novel conversation piece.  Children will enjoy adding ingredients but they will most likely need to stand on a step ladder to reach the opening and they will need assistance turning the bin. It gets heavy. It also drips valuable compost tea so you might want to consider capturing this valuable liquid.

While the initial cost is more expensive than alternative bins of similar sizes, the speed in which compost is cooked quickly justifies that cost. There are larger versions of compost tumblers but the Tumbleweed Compost Tumbler serves our current gardening needs.