OK, here is the start of my adventure

hartge01 1/20/2011, 7:36 pm

http://plaza.ufl.edu/ghartge/

I have pictures of my garden and my trash can compost tumbler.

Blessings,

P.S. I did not see anything in the rules of the forum about posting links to websites except for making sure you had permission to link to the page. Please let me know if this is against policy and I will remove the link.

Megan 1/20/2011, 7:49 pm

Hi there, and welcome to the forum! $glad you\'re here$

Those are fabulous pictures; you are off to a great start. I wish I were that far along! Are you going to add a grid to make it a true SFG?

The link is fine so long as it is family friendly (and you have the permission to link, of course). Basically it's common sense. Safety yes, spam, no. Very Happy

janefss2002 1/20/2011, 9:11 pm

Wow, you are getting off to a great start! Don't you just love Mel's Mix when you finish making it up? My hubby just stands and smiles at me as he catches me running my hands gently through the finished product. I so love the way it works in the garden better than dirt!

I also like your tumbler! I think I have either seen here or on another forum the bolts through the can to aide in the process. I liked seeing your pictures and hope to adapt (adopt Smile

?) that idea into our system. Making our own compost in a trash can is our Holy Grail. Our biggest success so far from a 30 gal can was about 4 cups of finished compost of questionable quality Embarassed

Enjoy the experience, it's worth it!
Jane

kiev123 1/24/2011, 12:44 am

So the washers - what are they for exactly?

hartge01 1/24/2011, 6:41 am

kiev123 wrote:So the washers - what are they for exactly?

Hey Kiev123,

They provide a greater surface area for connecting to the trash can.
As the trash can is rolled there is stress applied to the bolts at the point where they are connected to the trash can. By placing large washers inside and out, this stress is applied to a larger area, helping to prevent the bolts from pulling or working themselves out.

kiev123 1/24/2011, 9:27 am

Hi hartge01,

So are you securing the bolts to the inside of the can and it somehow helps with the tumbling?

I made one a few years back, but it get's too heavy and I don't have a good way to secure the lid. I just dumped out what I had in it a few months back and I started a new one. There's room to improve it.

hartge01 1/24/2011, 10:08 am

kiev123 wrote:So are you securing the bolts to the inside of the can and it somehow helps with the tumbling?.

What the bolts do is help to break up the compost material inside the can to help aerate and speed decomposition.

For full disclosure, this isn't my idea. I got the idea/instructions from the compost forum. It is well thought out and it does works. (There are a lot of really bright people on this forum and a huge amount of experience.)

Remember to put a hole(s) in the bottom tough. (I forgot to do that originally and water will collect and cause issues.)

Here is the forum;
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/f53-compost

Specifically;
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t4557-18-compost-bin

You can also search on the text "compost in a trash can"

The lid is tricky. I use bungee cords in a web arrangement across the top.

Still, the best way I have found is gentle rolling back and forth otherwise the warm plastic will still allow a some material to escape. This is still a lot easier than turning a big compost pile which I have also.

Blessings

hartge01 1/24/2011, 10:11 am

P.S. You can't really tell from the photo, but I placed my bolts (four in all) at varying depths in the trash can.

Blessings,

Gary

kiev123 1/24/2011, 4:33 pm

Ok, Thanks for the info. That's a huge thread and I will need to read it. I will have to find something similar in my garage and attach the bolts to the bin. I can see how this can help with the process...

Oh and I did also learn the hard way to have holes on the bottom Smile

hartge01 wrote:P.S. You can't really tell from the photo, but I placed my bolts (four in all) at varying depths in the trash can.

Blessings,

Gary

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