Silly compost question

[amcal]

I have one of those big compost tumblers - it holds a TON! I've been putting our food scraps in it since early spring and it's only 1/3 full.

Anyway, on to the silly question. If you add stuff to it every day, how do you ever have compost that's ready to use?

I do have some compost in the bin that's rich and dark, but, it's mingled with my food scraps which I keep adding. If I'm adding to it constantly, how can I ever use it without having food scraps in my garden?

[jocelyndale]

You can screen it and then put the stuff the screen catches back into the tumbler.

Or you can save up for a second tumbler/bin and switch off between them.

Sometimes I just lasagna garden and throw food/organic scraps right into the garden, under a layer of something else.

[amcal]

Ohh! That's what the screen is for!

I bought it used and it didn't come with any information but, it had this extra screen and I never knew what it was for. Duh!
Thank you!

[alllyssa]

Don't forget the browns too. Some people save their kitchen scraps in 5 gallon buckets until they have enough to add to the tumbler all at once. You need lots more browns than greens (kitchen scraps are greens). Some experts say like 30 browns to 1 green, but a lot of people just do half and half. The compost will heat up when you have a good ratio. So add some leaves and see if this helps get the decomposition going.

[bugleg]

We use a solar cone that doesn't need emptying--critters take the waste and amend into the surrounding soil. It's awesome!

http://solarcone.net/system/index.php