Trials and tales of a not-so-advanced gardener--both in the dirt and beyond.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Making a Compost Tumbler -- I'll tumble for ya!

I can take absolutely no credit for the creation of this idea, only for making a post of step-by-step instructions. Anthony at The Compost Bin has a couple of posts about it and that's where I read about the Compost Tumbler; but, I wanted to post about how I did it.

So, I made a compost tumbler for less than $20--instead of paying $200 for a fancy one.
What you need:
A plastic garbage can with a lid
2 bungee cords
a drill
about a foot of screen typically used for windows
hot glue gun and glue
a hole-making drill bit



This is the one I used--2.5".
It was less than $10.





Step One: Cut a hole in that box! (People who get that SNL reference are LOLing now...)


So I drilled several holes in garbage can. These are necesary for aeration. (Optional: Take a utility knife and "clean-up" the edges of the circles.) These don't have to be circles, I just thought this was the easiest since they have a circle-making drill bit.



Step Two: Cut the screen in large enough pieces to cover the holes.
I just used a pair of my rusty garden shears and made the square large enough to overlap about 1/2 an inch.
*If you have a great hardware guy like my Vince at Ace, see if they will sell you just a foot from the screen they use to repair window screens. I got mine for about $1.25--much less than the $10 I would have paid for several feet of screen in the roll (that I will never use.)
Step Three: Cover the holes.

I used my hot glue gun with normal glue. I found the best way was to place the screen on the hole on the inside, then to glue around the circle.






Step Four: Put in your favorite goodies that are ready to composted!

Important to note--be sure you buy bungee cords that fit over the top of the trash can...you don't want you compost to spill out when you tumble it.
I tumble (read: kick around) mine every 3 days or so. I'll update you on when I have wonderful "black gold."


Here is the finished product before going outside (Yes, I did this project inside. It was raining so I just put down a sheet in the kitchen.)

3 comments:

Anthony said...

Awesome! Nicely done. You should be composting in no time. :)

Shanti said...

Yeah, Christy, nice going. I especially appreciate the clear directions. I have 3 4x4 bins but want to give this idea a whirl to see if I can speed it up. Thanks, Shagaia

Daisy said...

Lovely! I like my compost bin the way it is; next job, a rain barrel.