food waste composter

[forgotten_aria]

I would like to get a composter.

I know know nothing about composters other than they seem to be very expensive, so I need to know enough to get what I want. Any advice?

Comments

[derekbbell.livejournal.com]

We have a Earth Machine because of a class that cyano attended. I think it was underwritten by the city.

[blk]

What is your goal in composting? Is it primarily to get rich gardening base out of it as fast as possible, or primarily to have a place to throw kitchen scraps so you have less trash (or more equal parts of both)?

If the former, then go with other people's suggestions, as I know nothing. If the latter, then a fenced in area enclosed by sturdy chicken wire, touching the ground, will work just fine, and is cheap and easy.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

The best way to get a composter to not smell is to regularly cover the kitchen waste with leaves/shredded paper.

I think you want a tumbling composter.

My assumptions:
(1) You don't want to turn it with a pitchfork/aerator
(2) You don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about the perfect mix of yardwaste and kitchen scraps
(3) You don't want to worry about mammals or insects getting into it

Because the tumbling composters are off the ground you don't have to worry about stuff digging into it. Because they aerate by turning they will have less issue with smell/bugs

The cheapest way is to throw something together with chicken wire/pallets. If you're mostly dealing with leaves/brush with a small amount of kitchen waste then you shouldn't have a pest problem this way. But if you're going to have more than the occasional kitchen scraps then you don't want an open system

(I really like my composter because it is square and heavy and this makes it easy for me to mix it with a pitchfork. It has an open bottom, but I have it on asphalt so that's not a problem. I find the earth machine hard to turn compost in, and the ones I interact with are always falling apart. Maybe I'm just rough on compost bins.