Garden Composters, Compost Tumblers, Bins and Barrels

About Garden Composters

Compost is a great way to enrich garden soil. Experienced gardeners know garden soil needs to be replenished regularly. Gardeners can make this free organic fertilizer, right in their own backyard. Using a garden composter is a neat and efficient way to accomplish the task. There is a wide variety of compost tumblers, bins and barrels to fit your needs.

Some gardeners create a composting heap, piling up yard waste and kitchen waste. While reaping a healthy, rich soil, a composting pile has drawbacks. This passive composting process can be painstakingly slow, unsightly, messy, and often smelly. It can also attract and harbor unwanted pests.

More and more gardeners use attractive, garden composters. A garden composter turns yard waste, into rich compost much faster than an untended pile. How fast, you ask? An untended compost pile can take a year or more to decompose. Under ideal conditions, a compost tumbler can do the job in as little as 30 days!

A composter pays for itself, quickly producing rich, valuable soil. Some models also produce compost tea, a great, organic liquid fertilizer.

The "Go Green" Movement

Schools, businesses, and government agencies buy composters, too. Schools use them in teaching environments and cafeterias. Restaurants are using composters to process waste into rich, valuable soil. Even businesses are now using composters because it is the right environmental thing to do.

We encourage you to promote composting efforts in your local schools, restaurants, and businesses. Let them know it is important to you. Sometimes, all it takes to get a business to begin composting is to let them know it is important to you, their customer.

Compost Tumblers and Compost Barrels

A Compost Tumbler, also called Tumbling Composters, is the most popular style of composter on the market. They are attractive in your backyard or garden. They convert yard waste into finished compost, much more quickly than compost bins and barrels.

Compost tumblers and barrels are designed to roll, or turn, mixing plant waste materials, to speed up decomposition.

Did You Know? Under the right conditions, tumbling composters can convert plant waste to rich compost in as little as 14 days!

The most popular models are black, green, and brown. Black composters are popular in northern climates, where the weather is not as warm. Black absorbs more heat, to help speed up decomposition. If you live in the southern areas of the U.S., and the composter is to be located in a sunny area, black composters might get a little too hot in mid-summer months. Green is a great color in the south, It blends in with the environment, and does not absorb as much heat.

Types of Garden Cold Frames

Compact Compost Tumbler – This is one of the two most popular compost tumblers on the market. The Original Compost Tumbler is the other.

This Compact Compost Tumbler (Also called Compact ComposTumbler) makes fast work of kitchen waste, along with yard and garden organic materials. Compact Compost Tumbler quickly recycles organic materials into nutrient-rich compost.

These models are attractive, high quality, and very long-lasting.

This tumbler produces 9.5 bushels (approx. 11.8 cu.ft.) of compost, in as little as two weeks (ideal conditions).

Other popular tumblers from this manufacturer include: Twin Barrel Compost Tumbler 2, Original Compost Tumbler, and the Back Porch Composter. The Back Porch composter is on wheels for portability.

Jora Composter – Both Jora composters have dual bins, allowing you to fill one side with raw materials, as the other one is in the finishing stages of composting. The composters are insulated, to provide higher, decomposition temperatures. The smaller composter is the only one on the market, that is wall-mounted.

Sun Mar Composter – This unique composter produces a continuous flow of finished compost. You don’t have to wait for an entire batch to be complete.

Add material by sliding the input door open. Rotate the drum to mix and aerate the materials. Finished compost is removed, by opening the output port, rotating the drum, and allowing the compost to fall from the inner drum into a basket or other container.

Models include: Sunmar 200 Composter

Compost Bins

Bins are a passive composting method. Composting bins sit directly on the ground. Bins usually do not have a bottom. They do not turn or move. The compost material sits in the bin, slowly decomposing over time. Use a shovel or pitchfork, to occasionally stir and turn the materials. Some gardeners will place a screen under the unit, to keep pests from burrowing under the compost bin.

Because the material is not turned (as often) like a barrel or tumbling composter, it takes longer to convert yard waste into rich, nutrient-laden soil.

Soil Saver – This is one of the more popular “bin” style composters. Open the lid and add materials. As the material decomposes, the finished product is on the bottom. A convenient door at the bottom of this unit is opened to allow you to extract finished compost. The Soil Saver Compost Bin holds 11.4 cubic feet of raw materials.

Shepherd Compost Bin – If you are looking for a large, very long-life bin, the Shepherd Bin is for you. This bin is manufactured from 12 gauge, corrosion-resistant PVC coated welded wire. It holds a big, big 30 cubic feet. A “chimney” is built in the middle of the bin. This unique design of this composter, allows more oxygen to the center of the pile, for faster decomposition.

Made in the USA.

Guarden Compost Bin – It’s new on the market, and it’s B-I-G!! This composting bin is for the serious home gardener with a big garden, or for small farms. Pile up all of your yard and garden waste. It will slowly convert into valuable, money saving compost. Made of long-lasting Vinyl, it is 4′ L X 4′ W X 21″ H.

Kitchen Compost Containers

We do not recommend Kitchen Composters (compost containers). Kept inside the home, kitchen waste attracts insects, and gives off offensive odors. We strongly recommend removing kitchen wastes immediately to an outdoor container.

Composting Buckets

Almost any old bucket will do. A 5-gallon bucket works well.

Compost buckets hold material in a neat and tidy manner. They are good for making compost for small flower or vegetable gardens. They are small in size, and it is too difficult to turn the materials as they decompose.

We highly recommend a composter with a latch, or a lockable lid, to keep unwanted pests out.

Composter manufacturers offer composting buckets, at reasonable prices.

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