A compost barrel or compost tumbler is a propped up barrel on it’s side that composting material can be added to to process. The advantage of a compost tumbler over a compost heap is that instead of breaking out the pitch fork to turn your compost pile, you simply need to rotate the barrel. While people who have been gardening for years are often skeptical of switching to a compost barrel, the compost tumbler almost always wins people over with it’s ease of use and dramatic reduction of labor. Let’s look at how compost tumblers work, how you should use them, and what their pros and cons are.
How Compost Barrels Work
A compost barrel works just like a regular compost except that it is contained and turn able without the use of other tools. Organic materials still go in in the proper ratio and order and compost still comes out after some time. The compost needs to be aerated and turned still, but this is done simply by spinning the barrel along its axle rod. Adding compostables to the barrel is simple as they usually just have a slider door or liftable latch lid. These are held into place simply and are designed to be sturdy enough to hold the compost in the barrel while being rotated.
How to Use a Compost Barrel Correctly
Interestingly enough, when used correctly, compost barrels are capable of shaving months of time off the composting process. This is typically because they are easier to turn, can get better aeration, and due to their simplicity often better managed by their users. If you want to be a compost master, it’s easy to do so with a compost barrel.
Compost barrels function just like a regular compost. To use your compost tumbler simply add an equal amount of “green” materials and “brown” materials to your composter, close it up, and give it a quick spin. Green materials would be moist and fresh organic materials ranging from grass clipping to food scraps. Brown materials are dry organic components. Remember, not all organic components are suitable for composting and not all compost is created equal!
After your compost has been mixed in the barrel, make sure to check the moisture level. It should feel no more damp than a well rung out sponge. If it is too wet you can adjust by adding more dry components to the composter.
Rotate the barrel at least once a week to ensure everything is mixed well and check to make sure the barrel doesn’t dry out or stay too wet. With an idea ratio of brown to green components you can expect some ready to use compost in as little as a month!
The Major Pros and Cons of Compost Tumblers
Everyone wants to hear the pros and cons of every garden gadget, but before we get into that we want to point out that some pros or cons might be a bigger deal for you specifically, so always consider how it affects your process in the garden when making a decision on a new tool.
Compost Barrel Pros
The biggest pros of a compost barrel are easily the time savings and ease of use. They’re dead simple to setup and use. They require way less work than a compost heap. Ultimately they produce compost faster as well, so they’re great for gardeners who are looking for a continual source of compost over the course of a season, but also don’t want to have a massive compost mound eating up precious square footage that could be used for more plants.
Compost barrels are also scalable. If you need more compost space, setup another barrel. The same could be said about a compost pile, but they can’t be moved around the same way, and a traditional compost pile system functions best if all the piles are right next to each other. Compost barrels move easily and don’t need to be in any particular spot to work well.
Compost Barrel Cons
First and foremost, compost barrels are not free. In that they are tool, they have some cost. Even if you make them yourself you’ve spent something on the materials or the tools necessary to make the materials. Fancier compost tumblers can cost a lot more than is necessary too. Sure the expense may be worth it, but homesteading typically relies on cost saving tactics to work out to a net positive.
Compost barrels can also be improperly vented or drained depending on the kind you get. Most store bought compost barrels are not fully sealed (which is the right way to make them). Homemade compost tumblers on the other hand might have too good of a seal or be constructed to be air tight which can cause anaerobic microbes to run too rampant in the compost and ruin it. These problems are easily avoided by turning and checking your compost regularly, but the risk is worth stating.
Another big draw back is their capacity. While it is true that a compost tumbler will turn compost faster when properly used, you can’t add as much to it at a time. In our experience this has worked out to a negligible difference, but for people who have a lot of organic material to compost you might need quite a few barrels to meet your needs. And to be perfectly honest, most individuals who use a compost barrel also have a compost pile, you don’t have to have just one.
Finally, and most upsetting for us, is the fact that information on compost barrels is all over the place. Some places say you should compost green brown at a 3 to 1 ratio, others claim that barrels don’t compost the same way as a pile at all. It’s hard to keep all this information straight, especially when it varies between the manufactures of these products. While we can say their are some differences and the information is not consistent, what should be consistent is your ability to check your compost. You should know if it’s too wet or too dry by looking at it. You should know it’s going bad if it starts to smell off. There are a lot of really hard stances out their on the proper way to handle compost barrels and we don’t think they’re necessarily wrong so much as they are too rigid to be useful to anyone else out there. The bottom line is that if you use a compost barrel you need to figure out what ratios and rotation cycles work best for you and you need to pay attention to what comes out of the barrel in the first place.
Compost Barrels Might Be Right For You
If you are tired of turning compost by hand and sweating over a pitch fork for hours at a time, a compost tumbler might be right for you. The simplicity of use is hard to turn away from and the time save in generating compost is a big plus. While they’re certainly not for everyone we’ve found them to be exquisite over the last few years and a great small investment for our gardens.