Round and Round

That is how my compost will be going, or at least a small portion of my compost.

My new compost tumbler arrived Thursday. (I finally bit the bullet and bought one, as the ones I'd had offered to me free were either damaged or had been put together so oddly that they needed parts replaced.) Noel and I assembled it in the dining room, and this morning I dragged it out back and filled it up.

Here it is, empty. The lid weighs more than the plain bottom, so it hangs upside-down when empty. Which is not how it will ever be in this garden. It is a very big tumbler, almost five feet tall when upright. I figured I would need the capacity.

Inside, there is an aerating core and two rods crossing the barrel that will help mix and break up material.

The girls were curious about what I was doing with that pitchfork near their beloved compost piles.

It took me a few minutes to fill the bin to the top, mixing the older, dry stuff with a good supply of dried chicken poop, fresh weeds, and chunks of sod. Then I sprinkled it with some water and gave it a good spin. In theory I could have finished compost from this in three weeks.

In other news, we have a lot of quinces. If it's not obvious from this photo how big those suckers are, but they're about five inches in diameter. If you were under the tree at the wrong time you could be killed by one of these things. We've got one friend who wants some, and I'm thinking maybe I'll try making a quince sorbet this year.

Technorati Tags: compost, fruit, quince

posted by ayse on 09/20/08