What says spring more than a college student coming home over spring break? That visit coinciding with a new composter in the quickly thawing back garden!
Liam arrived home on Saturday to spend a few days with us before heading off on a camping trip with some college friends. We had a really nice day here, with the goals of the day being to set up our new composter, smoke some ribs and generally soak up the sun in the back garden.
The tumbler composter that was very nicely given to us by family friend Bruce at least 10 years ago stopped tumbling at the end of last summer. It was increasingly hard to make it turn, and I really hurt my shoulder trying to get it to turn in the fall… deciding it wasn’t worth injury over it, we took a several-month break from composting (which always feels strange, throwing into the trash perfectly compostable kitchen scraps!) while deciding what to do next. I assessed the options for a new composter just recently and decided to go with an Earth Machine. It doesn’t tumble so might not produce compost as quickly, but on the other hand you don’t have to allow as much space for it. Read on for how to switch composters in 5 easy steps (step 4 will shock you!)
Step 1: move the old composter, open one end, and let the compost pour out onto the ground. Gather tools for next step.
Step 2: empty out the old composter.
Nice work!
Step 3: Quick play fight session with Miles, who is enjoying the spring weather in short sleeves and bare feet.
Step 4: Smell the BBQ ribs, think about how lucky we are that John fired up the smoker today!
Step 5: Place the new composter over the pile of compost. Do a bit of shoveling to get the stuff back in. Bolt the new composter in place.
Speaking of spring, our seedlings are doing very well under the grow lights. Can’t wait until these tomato plants deliver this summer!
Oh and we gobbled up the ribs once they were cooked, but here’s a photo of ribs covered in a dry rub, before they went on the smoker. Yummm! Not to give away any secrets here but there were a lot of flavor steps – dry rub, sauce, more rub, with the whole racks of ribs coming in and out of the smoker.
Looks like there was a lot of compost in the old one.
With the new composter, do you add your compostables into the top of it? Then do they just sit there and compost, or do you have to stir them around some?
The young tomato plants look promising!
Liam, hope you have a great time on your camping trip!
Did you include the picture of the smoker just to make Colmán jealous?!
Good luck with the composting!
Hi all – we are supposed to stir the contents of the new composter regularly. Having said that, I bet it does most of its cooking action on its own, once summer starts and it gets nice and toasty in there. Worms come up from the ground and help, too. Thanks for the wishes for Liam’s trip! He left today. Glad the plan to make Colman jealous worked, just a little payback for our envy over his new BBQ in December! 🙂 Rebook your flight back to Oz through Chicago and we will fire it up for you!