I think they are a poor investment of gardening money. To develop heat to do a good job with disease control at least a cubic yard needs to be composted at one time. A pile right on the ground with the moisture content maintained will draw red wiggler worms up from the ground. The more often you turn the pile the quicker the compost providing moisture content is properly maintained. Al

I have an Envirocycle composter. Got it about 5 years ago & it's been great (for me!) You can check out all the details at www.envirocylesystems.com to see if this would fit your needs.

I've been using a standard black plastic composter for a few years now. It was free from LA county. Turns out great compost year round. The finished compost falls to the bottom and is shoveled out through a small door in the bottom.

Everyone that has answered you so far is offering great advice I have several composting methods going on at once, including the tumbling type. For this type, you need to put a lot of materials in all at once, or else it will stop "cooking" and start all over again. If you are just going to put in yard waste and kitchen scraps in on an ongoing basis, I think your money is better spent on having the non-tumbling type, and even an open-enclosed bin might work for you if you do not have a rodent problem or pets that might get into it. I use my kitchen scraps in my "cold composter" as I am not in a hurry to get that composted, only want the worms that will come up.
Several cities in CA offer bins at discount if you attend a free composting class, that's how I got started with one of my bins. I don't like it as much as the others I have, but it was only $20.00. Some cities do have free ones, check it out and good luck!

Mine sounds like the kind mrclint describes, it's basically just a black plastic tub with a lid on top and a door on one side of the bottom that you can open and shovel out the finished compost.

peebeel has a good point... honestly, I don't know if I'm actually composting in that thing. I think I might just be vermi-whatever-ing. Certainly add to it everyday, never a whole lot at one time, and I have tons and tons of earthworms in there that are all happy as can be but I don't know if it's actually heating up or anything. Oh well, I get plenty of near-black, crumbly stuff to add to my garden so I'm happy either way :-)

I also do the vermi-thing, using some $5 plastic storage bins with the snap-on tops. Cut the bottom out, set 4-5" into the ground, toss green/brown in, and water once a week. We have 3 on a rotating basis, and they are very easy to empty (just lift off). Once I think a bin is ready - stop watering - the worms leave, and I shovel away. Like most small households, we don't generate enough volume to do a traditional compost heap, and the worm ranch does all the work for me!

slave2thefur - how big are the storage bins you are using??

BettyN

We do three types of composting -

The main one is a pile on the ground of shredded limbs, leaves, succulents, weeds, etc. that is ground up with a heavy duty shredder, covered with a tarp, watered, turned and allowed to decay - takes about 2 months.

I also use a large box (cedar chest type) that catches raked leaves, smaller grasses, fruit drops, shredded paper, add some shovels of dirt, turned every few days. It has holes in the bottom for aeration. The worms will eventually eat out the bottom. A cover on top with a cushion makes a nice resting place in the garden, and becomes a part of garden furniture.

Near the kitchen back door, I have 2 worm bins, stacked - with holes in the bottoms and around the tops. I add bedding of shredded newspapers, coffee grounds, kitchen vegetable scraps and more shredded newspaper on top to discourage fruit flies, etc. One bin cover is on the bottom to catch moisture, the other cover on top.

From time to time, I rotate the bins - as the top has a tendency to become overloaded (worms can't keep up), and many worms will migrate to bottom anyway, where the compost is "harvested" then the remaining worms are fed from the top with additions of veggie scraps and shredded paper.

I had to put 2 boards on the sides to keep the top bin from smashing the bottom one - this set-up seems to work fine for our needs.

These Tote bins measure approximately 2 ft. long x 1 ft. wide x 1 ft deep. This should serve 2 to 3 person family. Some folks also collect extra coffee grounds (work place, Starbucks, etc.) to add to their collection.

Larger size bins would make it cumbersome to lift when filled, so the smaller sizes are best for that last set-up.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

I don't quite remember, but it's the $5-$6, 20? quart size, but they're about 3'x2' and about 18" deep, and I've had the some ones for 15 years. As long as the lid snaps on snugly, they work fine. If I get flies or it dries out too quick, I throw a thin layer of dirt on top and layer away. My 'weapon of mouse destruction' does regular patrols for interlopers. Worms eat pretty quickly, and it's easy to tell when the bin is done. Stop watering, and the worms wiggle away and I can empty. =^,,^=
They're also some nice folks over in the composting forum who can answer questions.

I have the standard old-fashioned, black box type composter, too. The one complaint I have about it is that one cannot turn the compost over very well. It is more like taking the lid off and "stirring" it around. I do have rich, black earth at the bottom of the composter, but it gets a bit stuck in the door and is hard to remove; or let us say it does not come out easily. I had considered getting the tumble type, only because it does enable aeration so well. The type I have may take a bit longer to break down, but it does make good compost and this is evidenced by plenty of worms in it.

I sometimes feel I fall short in getting enough brown material to put in it; by far the majority of donations to the composter is my kitchen scraps and those of my neighbors. I occasionally add a bit of manure tea or an enzyme to help it break down. Once in awhile have had trouble with fruit flies; nothing serious. I just add more cardboard!

I would say if you are going on the cheap, the type I have and the one or two others who have described theirs if the same, is the way to go; but I have considered the tumble type. Either way you will be getting good compost for your garden.

I appreciate all the feedback! I had considered a tumbling composter because of the difficulty in turning the compost in some of the other systems the "hopflower" just brought up - but now I'm wondering if the tumbling types are a problem because the compost doesn't come in contact with the ground? I don't think the worms are going to make their way into the tumbler... So we can't have the best of both worlds?

BettyN

I don't think you'd get worms into a tumbling composter. I guess you could add some, but don't know how well they'd do. Honestly, I don't really turn my pile; I sort of mix it around a little bit now and then but the worms find their way through it pretty thoroughly so I just shovel it out of the door on the bottom and if there's a big chunk of vegetable matter or something they missed, I just throw it back in the top.

If you do get one that has an open bottom and sits on the ground, you might want to make sure there are no trees around. I couldn't figure out why the compost wasn't falling to the bottom until I realized there was an entire root system coming up through the bottom of the tub :-)

I had only one place left where I could place a composter and it was on a side strip of my house. I decided to build one with mostly scrap material I already had laying around. They really are quite easy to build. Ideally I would have liked a three-bin composter but I didn't have the room so I settled for two bins. I have boards that I slide into the front area so I can raise or lower the height according to the amount of accumulated compost. On the far end is plant material in the process of being turned into compost and nearer the camera is composted material ready to go into the garden. Once I empty the nearest bin I will then move the material in the other bin over to the empty bin. It works well for me.
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And here's the front view of the bin with the composted material.
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I just put a bunch of my composted material into the veggie garden yesterday. I was full of worms and those big "C" grubs. I kept the worms and fed the C grubs to the birds...... - Mike
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My sister uses old trash barrels with the bottom cut out, no need to spend extra $ that could be spent on more plants ;^). She just pulls up on the barrel and moves it a bit and then shovels the compost back in the barrel to mix.

I use hoops of 4' tall wire fencing with an empty plastic potting soil bag over the top to hold in moisture. They are in a well hidden area so I don't care what they look like.

A pile on the ground with a tarp over it to hold in moisture works fine, too.

I am so appreciative of all the feedback! I am a little wary of having the composter open to the ground because this is going in a spot where an oleander has just been cut down. I think I could end up with a ton of oleander sprouts coming up through the compost...

BettyN

Does anyone have any opinions about which compost style is best for rodent control? Or is it not really a problem? I like what you are all saying about keeping it in contact with the ground, the tumblers just strike me as a big waste of money, but we live in an area with rodents and coyotes and lots of stray dogs and cats, and I'd hate to attract any more than I already have.

Stickgarden,
We live with the same coyotes, rodents, etc. My compost is in open piles, but the only thing that goes thru my compost are my own dogs, they help "turn" them for me. I think our dogs keep the others away. We lose kittens to coyotes, but not compost.:(

I picked up a used wine barrell on craigslist for $15 and this works great for me. I simply kick every other day to make it roll / tumble.

For rodent control - some of the black ones come with bottoms with lots of lil holes in them that snap on to keep rodents from burroughing up into it. If you get one without and like the black jobbers, place it on some hardware mesh (like for gopher cages) and turn the edge up so they can't burrow in from underneath - top up they're even racoon proof.

The black ones may not be the best composters - but they are easy. I never turn mine (keep a few going tho), simply waiting you get great compost out the bottom. Effortless (but it does take more time this way).

I do several types of composting but my favorite is worm composting- I have 4 bins going - 2 are garbage cans with the bottom removed and turned upside down for easy removal, the third is the compost bin with the door in the bottom and the 4th is a large (48 gal) container someone gave me. I put holes all around that one. The open bins have bricks underneath so that moles do not come in to eat worms, rats and gophers don't come in to nest. I also put plastic on top on the bricks. Clean the small ones once a year and the huge one every two years. Remember worms eat 90% of everything you give them. Beside food scraps also put in softer garden cuttings. Also do the cold composting in piles in the field.

Penny

"Remember worms eat 90% of everything you give them." This is the just the problem I like to point out. The worms eat all the compost there is less for you to put in your garden. If you just want to get rid of stuff there is a pick up with the local trash of compostable things with the local trash in some areas. I would not bother with worms since I have this service. I use my compost I make myself, before the worms eat it all.

My sister uses old trash barrels with the bottom cut out, no need to spend extra $ that could be spent on more plants ;^). She just pulls up on the barrel and moves it a bit and then shovels the compost back in the barrel to mix.

Brilliant! Now I just need to find some old (or cheap new) trash barrels.

We keep a compost heap in the back corner behind a pair of juniper trees. I toss it now and then and try to keep it damp. I lay pruned thorny rose canes around the pile to discourage critters. The other day I covered it with burlap (lets the rain in, keeps critters out) and put the rose canes on that.

I love the idea that hoovb posted: cheap and easy.

@ tropical thought:

Just a clarification... worms don't technically eat the "compost"... they create and process it as they do eat the fungi, bacteria and bacterial slime that results from the breakdown of the decomposing food. What you get as a result is an aerobic-bacteria-rich "black gold" that is also known as vermiCOMPOST. The aerobic bacterial count in the compost is much higher than the fungal and anaerobic bacterial counts resulting from traditional composting - unless your literally turning your compost pile every 2 days. (The worms do this continuously). The aerobic-bacterial rich compost that results is win-win (for multiple reasons) in the vege garden. Remember that vegetables like a ratio of 1:1 (aerobic bacteria vs fungus) in the root zone. And that's hard to do without the worms!

Worms are eating your compost. If you want to give up the compost for worms castings, you will get very little worms casting compared the compost you have to give up the get worms castings. If you want to improve the soil worm casting are not the way to go. You need organic matter in your soil. I am sure worm casting are very nice, and I get some of them also, but I want a volume. I want a lot of compost. So, I use the compost fast, the worms are still free to continue to eat my compost when I put it and them into the garden.

I did some research, it said the worms are not eating compost, but things around the compost. However, I was speaking of red wrigglers not earthworms. Earthworms don't seem to eat very much, but the red wrigglers do. If the red worms are only eating things around the compost. I don't know about that, but once I ended up with too many of them in the bin, but it may have been that I had bad drainage. I let the bin get too wet. I left the top off and it rained. This problem never happened again. I always put the top on every time I lift the lid.

I found a bin I think is good. Bosmere 103 Gallon Deluxe Hot Compost Bin. It is black which give more heat. It is round. Round is better then square. I have had both kinds of bins. Round bins heat better. It has no holes to let in fruit flies. Worms can come in and out from the bottom if you want worms. If the worms are unhappy they can just leave. They won't die. I have not tried this one, but it looks good and the price is reasonable. The one I have is the Eco bin and I don't like it, because the door falls off all the time.