Mother Earth’s Garden

The amazing compost corkscrew!

by Margaret on December 3rd, 2006

After all the philosophy about compost in my last post, I thought I’d share a wonderful and very practical discovery I made a few years ago that has transformed my home composting methods. As anyone who has tried it knows, the average domestic compost bin soon deteriorates into a damp smelly mess if not managed and turned properly. Part of the answer is to mix in some dry materials with the soggy kitchen scraps – I use shredded paper. But even this won’t help if you can’t get air into the mixture, and who has time, energy or inclination to turn all that mess each week?

Enter this http://www.reln.com.au/Compost_Mate.pdf - the compost spiral, or compost mate. It is now marketed by Reln Plastics, but when I discovered it was still being made in small lots by its inventor, Dion Kentwell. Dion used to be a project manager for the big Australian mining company BHP. His wife was a keen gardener, and had two Gedye compost bins behind the garden shed. Neither was working well, and Dion concluded lack of air was the problem. He tried to turn them with a fork, but the space was too tight.That evening he mused on the problem over a glass of red, and had one of those moments of insipiration when he looked at the corkscrew.  The result is the compost spiral. It works like an augur. You wind it into the compost bin like a corkscrew, then lift and twist, and the contents of the bin are turned and aerated without heavy lifting or mess. This little implement has transformed my composting. I give the bin a quick turn every time I throw in something new, and it no longer smells or goes rancid. Can’t recommend it enough! And in case anyone is wondering, this is not an ad of any kind. Just a genuine recommendation.           

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