Composting: An Experiment

I started composting my kitchen scraps again. This time I'm determined to see my garbage become lovely, nutrient-rich compost soil. My previous composting effort that I attempted a few years ago resulted in a tub of stinking, anaerobic slime. I continually dumped kitchen waste into a large Rubbermaid tub, but rarely got around to rotating and aerating the compost. Plus I didn't balance the composition with enough leaves and carbon material. Even after many months, the foodstuff still hadn't broken down much at all! When we moved from apartment, my husband unobtrusively dispersed the failed compost in small amounts under the leaves along the backyard fence. Left to it's own devices in nature, the slime undoubtedly became nice compost.

This time I decided I needed an easy way to aerate the compost, so I spent $129 on a tumbler. I also bought a lovely white ceramic compost jar ($34) for our kitchen counter. These accessories are not necessary, as people have been composting since Neolithic times, but we live in the city and have a tiny backyard; it wouldn't be a good idea to start an open compost pile back there for a couple reasons. To further support my composting success (buy! buy! buy!) I also bought the book, "Let It Rot: The Gardener's Guide to Composting," by Stu Campbell.

My big question about composting in a container is this: how does the nice rich soil happen if you're regularly adding new kitchen scraps? The older material will be in various states of decomposition, so logically I must have to stop adding material at some point and let the whole batch decompose completely. Therefore, unless you have a second tumbler or container, you have to stop composting (and just throw out your kitchen scraps) until the first batch is done. Dilemma! According to Stu Campbell, this is true: it's best to add all your compost source materials at once and then, let it rot.

Hmm. Here's my plan: I've decided to add kitchen scraps to the tumbler, combined with leaves, and rotate it regularly until it's full. Then I'll keep tumbling it until the magic happens, whereupon one day I will open the tumbler to discover dark, sweet swelling, garden-ready soil. How long will this take? Well, I added my first batch of kitchen scraps and leaves on February 26, 2011 and the tumbler is not yet full, so we shall see..!

PS:
As for what to do with kitchen scraps while my batch of compost is transforming itself -- I haven't figured that part out. I'm not buying a second tumbler, but I may buy an inexpensive plastic tub and commit to aerating and balancing the composition until I can move it into the tumbler.