To create the best possible compost for your garden from your kitchen scraps and lawn trimmings you need to get oxygen into your compost heap. I have strong memories of my father tossing the compost in the corner of our garden every few months to get everything moving and this is still a perfectly acceptable way in which to aerate, and so encourage, the composting process. However, it is also physically demanding, requires sufficient space for you to move and really doesn’t smell very nice.

An alternative to labouring away with a garden fork at a steaming heap of compost is to invest in a compost tumbler. At its most basic, a compost tumbler is a revolving drum, raised up from the ground on a frame, that you can rotate either by simply spinning it over by hand, or by turning a handle attached to its side. Since compost tumblers are usually sealed, bar a few air holes, and sit above the earth on a metal frame, unwanted visitors such as mice and snakes are prevented from getting in to your compost and making their home.

Compost tumblers are a great way to make good quality compost quickly and efficiently. Turning the compost tumbler every couple of days mixes the waste matter inside the bin and, most importantly, aerates it. It is this aeration, which feeds vital oxygen to organisms within the composting material and that speeds up the deterioration of the household scraps and results in garden mulch in as little as 4 weeks. If you want a richer compost, keep the compost tumbler going for an extra couple of weeks.

Clearly, a compost tumbler is a quick way to make good compost with very little work, but even this type of compost bin has a downside – size. Whilst you can build a compost heap as high as you like, a compost tumbler will only hold a certain quantity of household and garden scraps, with 220 litres being amongst the biggest. This is fine if you only have a small backyard and don’t produce bucketsful of organic kitchen waste every week. However, if you have a big garden which produces wheelbarrow loads of leaves and clippings each month and have a big family eating their way bags full of groceries each week, one compost tumbler is hardly going to contain all of your scraps. Ultimately, you could find yourself with either an army of compost tumblers lined up along your fence, or the compromise of a compost tumbler and a good old compost heap.

Having said that, compost tumblers are great for quick results with the minimum of effort. Once you have got your composting materials into the drum of the tumbler all you need to do is to rotate it regularly and make sure that you keep an eye on moisture levels inside it. Add water to the mixture as needed – a good rule of thumb is that the compost is damp enough when you can squeeze a little bit of liquid from a fistful of it.