Compost drum

There are an awful lot of adverts for compost tumblers. Some you roll along the ground. Others rotate on a base. Some rotate around a central axle. Still more are cranked with a handle. All suggest that they give you compost more easily and in less time than a bin which sounds very attractive. So, is a tumbler something that you should consider?

In 2011 Which? Gardening magazine in the UK compared turning five well-filled tumblers three times a week with turning a traditional compost heap of the same volume once a week (usually done with a garden fork or spade). Surprisingly they found that, while the heap took around ten weeks, tumblers actually took a month longer to create usable compost.

A decent tumbler makes turning easier, but if you want compost quickly and are happy to do the work, it appears that you might as well stick with a standard compost heap or bin, as long as it's easy to access the compost to turn it. It's considerably cheaper and gives you more exercise.