Have you seen the Compost Wizard compost tumbler before?
I know I had my reservations about it at first, then I liked it, then I wasn’t sure. Yesterday I was out for a stroll in the neighborhood and happened to discover one out in the open, so I checked it out:
First things first, this compost tumbler is in bad shape for a number of reasons…so this isn’t just a review, but more like a how-to guide. You can guess the first issue straight away, right? It’s not exactly level. I tried to tumble it, and it was really hard because it’s on a slant. So there you have it: make sure your composter is level.
The lid is threaded, and it takes a bit of force to open. I would hate to strip the threads on this, as opposed to just using a latch or some clamps…but it seemed to work OK.
It doesn’t appear that the compost tumbler was being paid attention to, or it was just being used as a waste receptacle. It was halfway filled with potting soil, and then a bunch of dead weeds and plants. Yikes! Now is the time of year to fix it…and I was quite tempted to. Add a ton of shredded leaves, wet it down, shred up the current contents and add some food waste.
The last step is to tumble it each week. This thing has the worst grips ever on it…it needs ridges! It doesn’t help that it’s sitting on a slight hill, and it’s filled with potting soil for some strange reason. The axles were rusted out and the barrel easily slides off the rollers as a result. The sides have plenty of holes for air circulation, and the contents of this were completely dried out.
Maybe I’ll go back as the Compost Crusader and get this thing up and composting again…that would make for a fun little mission, wouldn’t it?