Rain Barrel and compost tumbler Setups

[The Bearded Farmer]

I am currently building a 220 gallon rain barrel setup near my veggie patch. It consists of 4 55 gallon drums fed by one downspout and linked together with PVC. I would like to have 1 hose bibb per barrel and maybe eventually upgrade to a common bibb between all 4 barrels.

Anybody have any setup tips? Feel free to post pics of your setup. I will hopefully be putting up a pic later today when I finish it up!

I will also be constructing this as soon as the ground thaws in spring...

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKAZEx4-zUI[/url]

[The Mad Hatter]

I like that tumbler idea. How long does it take to cook up a batch in one of these barrels?

T.M.H.

[The Bearded Farmer]

Supposedly about 4 weeks if the barrel is roughly 3/4 full.

Here is another tumbler setup...

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=a08WS-wDivI[/url]

That one is a little more simple to build

[GardenRN]

I am having much more success getting compost from worms than I did with a composter, but that's just my experience.

In regards to your rain barrels, a few suggestions I have picked up while getting ready to build my own out of the same materials.

- When you link the barrels together, instead of having an "overflow" pipe linking them, put the connecting pipe at the bottom of the barrels. this allows them to fill evenly instead of one at a time and also allows all of them to empty together into one common hose so you don't have to move your garden hose constantly.

- Make sure wherever your rain barrels are located is uphill from your garden. (unless you're using an electric pump to get the water out of the barrels) If it's not uphill, you'll need to build a stand for the barrels, to raise them up off the ground.

- "pipe threaded" parts will make your job easier at the points where the PVC connects to the barrel.

that just what was off the top of m head. I'll shoot you a PM if I think of anything else. All I can say is watch as many youtube videos as you can and take the best parts from everything you see.

[The Mad Hatter]

Can yo throw the same things into a compost barrel as you would a compost pile? This seeks like a sure way to make some quick potting soil for seed starting? Or just throw it all in the garden. His well does it work when its super cold out like now?

T.M.H.

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't used a tumbler, but what I read about them, you can put the same things in as you would in a compost pile, but maybe being more careful about the balance and being sure you have plenty of "browns" and plenty of air holes. The problems people have reported are having go anaerobic and getting a slimy mess.

It isn't likely to do anything if it is outdoors in freezing weather. The amount of compostables a barrel can hold isn't likely to generate enough heat of decomposition to keep it going at that point. If it is well balanced and working well, it shouldn't generate odors, so you might be able to have one indoors.

I really like the idea of the double tumbler. One of my problems with the single one is you have to have a compost pile any way to keep the stuff for the next batch while waiting for the current one to finish. The double tumbler solves that problem.

Throw it all in the garden (if you mean that literally) sounds nasty and in my neighborhood would attract all kinds of raccoons, possums, rodents. I couldn't even bury kitchen scraps, they would be dug up in no time.

[The Mad Hatter]

I am wondering about the color of the barrels. Does it matter? I have some white plastic simple green battles that I think would work. What about the air holes, how many does you need? I am thinking one tow spaced a few inches apart every 90* of the barrel?

T.M.H.

[rainbowgardener]

The color doesn't matter a whole lot, but white will stay cooler and black would heat up more. Depends on your climate which would be better. "white plastic simple green battles" you mean bottles? or barrels? Bottles wouldn't work, so hopefully that was barrels...

The more air holes the better. One or two every 90 degrees sounds like a maximum of 8. I wouldn't think that is enough.

[The Bearded Farmer]

I was just researching the worm composting idea and I think I'm going to make 1 tumbler and the other barrel I am going to cut in half length wise and use as a worm composter. We will see which one works better for me.

As far as my rain barrel setup... It just snowed here so that got put on hold. This is the setup I m going to use....[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6miTYYoCMs&feature=related[/url]

Mine will only be 2 barrels for a total of 110 gallons. I might add more later.

[The Mad Hatter]

I like that set up. Really great. Looks like I may need more barrels lol.

T.M.H.