Composting is a great solution for a number of problems in the garden, especially for those gardening in the city. Not only does compost do a great job of improving the garden soil by adding nutrients and improving the tilth of the soil, but it buffers the pH to a level most plants do well with. And it keeps the waste from the garden out of the landfills and back in our local ecosystem.

But a compost pile can be something of an eyesore, especially in an urban garden where the space to hide compost pile is not readily available, and with its confined space it is more visible from the house.

A natural solution then is to use some sort of composter to both hide the pile, and to accelerate it by keeping enough refuse to heat up, and to help maintain the appropriate moisture levels in the pile. Any container with enclosed side walls will help in this regard, and with a lid or other top you can also keep the moisture out during the rainy season. And the side walls can help keep rodents and other pests out of your pile.

But if you are interested in really making your compost pile productive, you need a way to easily turn the pile a couple of times a week. If you start with a good mix of materials, pay attention to the moisture level, and turn it often you can turn out a batch of compost in four to six weeks, instead of months for a pile that is left alone. And the easiest way to get this turning done a couple of times a week is with a tumbler.

There are a number of different styles of tumblers, ranging from the simple ones that sit on the ground and are rolled around, to the large bins that site on a frame and have a crank to help turn them. But probably the best tradeoff between cost and ease of use is found in the center axle mounted tumblers. These have a drum mounted on a small frame, with the axle running through the center of the drum, so that it flips around something like a Ferris wheel might rotate.

These tumblers are lower in cost than the big drums, but are fairly easy to use and will make compost fairly quickly. But there are differences between the different models that you will want to be aware of...