What Home Composter to Buy?

Last December, my neighbor was so excited that her husband bought her a composter as Christmas present.It came in a big box and really got me curious.I have a small garden in my backyard and love organic gardening.I thought I could use one too, so I started researching about home composters.Compost is an organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment.Composting means making a pile of wetted organic matter (leaves, grass, food waste), and waiting for the materials to break down into soil over a period of weeks or months.Composters are designed to speed up the natural process by keeping the material in a control environment.There are so many different products in the market, which one should I buy?There are three main types of composters. compost bins, compost tumblers, and worm composters.Compost bins and worm composters are static, while compost tumblers spin.The compost bins may involve turning the pile manually once a while to get air in.A compost tumbler spins itself with a little push by hand and thus moves the air inside the container.A worm composter introduces worms into the container to help break down the pile faster.Basically, compost bins can be made from wood, vinyl, plastic or even metal wires.It works by simply filling the bin with waste and let nature do the work.Normally, compost bins are larger than compost tumblers and worm composters.Thus, a compost bin may take bigger space and need longer time to complete the process.Also, the compost bin is not very well controlled and could attract pest or pets to make it unpleasant.If there is plenty room in the yard and large piles to process, a large bin does seem to be an economical way to recycle.Most compost tumblers have a capacity of 50 gallons or more, yet their compact design takes very little space making it fit in smaller yard, patio or even garage.Some tumblers are very easy to set up with no installation required (like Envirocycle Composters ), while some others are more sophisticatedly constructed (like Lifetime Tumbler ) to work efficiently.The tumblers seals tightly and works effortlessly - spinning a few times a week as instructed is all it needs to produce rich, dark, odorless organic fertilizer in as little as a few weeks.Most of the tumblers are made with recycled plastics making it environmentally friendly and pleasing to eyes.Using a different way of decomposing, worm composters (like Worm Factory) are designed to have multi-trays vertically stacked to allow worms to move up from one tray to the other once the process is completed.This way, there is no stopping in the process with continuous recycling.Because worms are living creatures, worm composters do need to be better controlled in temperature.Many people use them indoors while others put them in porch, patio or balcony as long as the temperature is not too extreme.Worm composters are easy to set up and fun to run.The bonus is that the end compost is richer in nutrients than the others because of the worm castings.As a beginner, I am going to choose Envirocycle Original Composter for its easy setup and hassle free composting.Then I will be on my way to real organic gardening.