You can make compost in as little as four to six weeks with a compost tumbler. The secret is in the sauce.
Photo by Mantis
Tips for Adding Material to a Compost Tumbler
• Collect a variety of organic waste materials from your yard and garden.
• Be sure to include a mix of both nitrogen (green) and carbon (brown) ingredients for good balance.
• Do not add products that have been treated with chemical fertilizers or pest control products.
• If you have bulky items, such as corn cobs, melon rinds, or shrub clippings, shred before composting.
• Fill the compost tumbler with compostable ingredients, close the door, then turn the tumbler four or five times. Be sure to turn it daily.
List of Most Common Things to Compost
• Fresh grass Clippings
• Shredded leaves
• Kitchen trimmings and peels from vegetables and fruits
• Garden debris such as dead flowers and plants
• Black and white newspaper
• Rotted fruits and vegetables
• Pine needles
• Coffee grounds
• Tea leaves and bags (remove the staples)
Things You May Not Have Known You Could Compost
• Burned toast
• Citrus wastes
• Crab, shrimp and lobster shells
• Nut shells
• Potato peels
Photo by Mantis
Wait, I can Compost That?
You can add almost any organic material to your compost, and in small quantities you’re unlikely to upset the balance of “greens” and “browns.”
• Cardboard cereal boxes
• Human hair and animal fur
• Elmer’s glue
• Fingernail and toenail clippings
• Fish bones
• Greeting card envelopes
• Grocery receipts
• Ivory soap scraps
• Kleenex tissues
• Lint from clothes dryer
• Manure (From horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, pigs or sheep. Do not add waste from dogs or cats)
• Milk (in small amounts)
• Old leather gardening gloves
• Old or outdated seeds
• Q-tips (cardboard, only)
• Weeds (Yes! The temperature inside the ComposTumbler gets hot enough to kill weed seeds!)
• Wooden toothpicks