Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: drum composter experience?

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

S Brian Burke <sbrianburke [at] hotmail.com>
is the author of the message below. 
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> 


Note: This message was to the old listserv during the transition to
the new listserv. It is the first message distributed via the new.  Fred
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------


Our experience with the drum was that it takes longer than you'd hope to get 
the stuff composted, and that it gets HEAVY as it gets fuller, (big muscles 
needed!).  There seems to be a tendency for some of the composting matter to 
form large balls, and those often gather more "moss", or like snowballs 
rolling down hill.   These balls remain intact, and don't break down unless 
you break them up with a tool.  (We live in the wetcoast region of 
Canada--rainforest)

At Quayside Cohousing, we have a large 3 bin composter (cedar), for all 19 
units, which usually works very well, and gives us great soil for our 
vegetable gardens, our roof deck container gardens, and for keeping our 
"garbage" much lower than average.  Our bins our on the north side of our 
building, and so do need more heat building ingredients in the winter 
months.

Linda and Brian, Quayside Village Cohousing, North Vancouver



>From: Jillian Downey <jilliand [at] umich.edu>
>Reply-To: Developing cohousing - collaborative housing communities 
><cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
>Subject: [C-L]_ drum composter experience?
>Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 17:29:10 -0500
>
>Hi all,
>
>The grounds committee at Great Oak cohousing is looking at getting a 
>compost bin just for our common house dinner scraps (not to handle the 
>whole community's compost - individual households have small bins that they 
>use or share with others).
>
>We did not want to have an open bin due to the smell and visuals of it, 
>right in the center of the community on the common green. And I've only 
>ever used the ones that are shaped like a large black upside-down cup that 
>sits on the ground - they're hard to turn sufficiently and can get smelly.
>
>So, I looked around at other styles of composters and I found a two-bin 
>rotating drum composter that looks like it might work well and be easy for 
>people to use - the one I found is at
><http://www.eco-gardening.com/docs/comp_compostwin.shtml>
>
>So, I was wondering if others have used rotating drums? Do you find they 
>work ok for continuous composting (ie when you add a bit every day until 
>they're full and you need to let them finish processing)?
>
>We've also thought about trying their model that is supposed to keep 
>perking thru cold northern winters -
><http://www.eco-gardening.com/docs/comp_greenjohanna.shtml>
>has anyone tried those?
>
>thanks for any info,
>-Jillian
>
>---------------------------
>Jillian Downey
>Great Oak Cohousing
>Ann Arbor, Michigan
>
>
>


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