How to Use a Compost Spinner
Making your own compost is an affordable way to add nutrient-rich material to your garden bed for growing flowers, vegetables and herbs. The key to keeping your compost hot and "cooking" is turning the material so everything in the bin or tumbler breaks down evenly. If you don't know how to use a compost spinner, don't worry, the turning of the compost in a tumbler is perhaps the easiest way to get great compost in just a few months. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Open your composter and add any new materials to the bin as you have them, trying to add in even amounts of "green" and "brown" materials each time. "Greens" are typically kitchen waste and grass clippings or other plant matter, while "browns" are dried leaves, dead plants and twigs and shredded paper.
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Add a quart or two of water to your composter if the material as a whole looks dry. When the compost heats up the water will evaporate quickly and may need to be replaced often to keep the material breaking down.
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Close the composter well, securing any fastener, and turn the bin on its axis, if it has one, or roll it along the yard. You'll want to get at least four to five rotations in to ensure older, settled material mixes well with the new material.
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Position the bin back into its place on the ground or on its axis so that some drainage holes are running along the bottom. This drainage should ideally fall onto the grass or dirt ground rather than on a patio or concrete slab as it can often stain, especially if you are composting coffee grounds or tea bags.
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Turn the bin regularly once or twice a week to keep things cooking even when you don't have new material to add. Although the breakdown will slow over the winter months, continuing to turn the composter through the winter will keep the process from stalling out.
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Tips & Warnings
Kitchen scraps are wonderful additions to your compost material. Anything from eggshells and coffee grounds, to potato peelings and other unused raw vegetables can be used.
Never add animal scraps (fats, bone, meat, and blood) or feces to your composter as this can encourage disease, odor, and/or pests to come to the composter. Remember that anything you put in the composter will eventually be in your garden and you may end up working in it without gloves.
