I take my composting seriously (sad but true). So I decided to buy myself a pre-Christmas present in December and was excited when the box arrived a few days later.
I had coveted this strange item ever since I had “had a go” with it in a natural gardening open day.
To make good compost rapidly I have been told the compost needs to be mixed frequently and I have seen videos of large compost heaps being attacked vigorously with garden forks.
I do not have sufficient strength to dig into piles of vegetable matter and in addition we keep our compost in wooden containers to keep it tidy and to conserve the warmth of decomposition. You would need to be tall to be able to fork through these compost boxes or be happy to demantle them every few days, which is not an easy job.
I do not usually feature the composting site on the blog, for obvious reasons. I’ve had to leave the tops open as once I had used my Brass compost mixer (for those interested in etymology, brasser means to mix or toss in French), I noticed that the mixture was quite dry in parts.
In short, I am delighted with it. I can burrow into my compost heap creating tunnels leading to the bottom layers and distributing the extracted cores on the top and sides. This is a video of the inventor showing how it works.
The mixer is produced by the ESAT de l’ODET near Quimper which is run by the Association for the paralysed in France (l’Association des Paralysés de France).
I think all I have to do now is put on the top and wait for some warmer weather to speed up the composting – and of course, keep turning it with my new brass compost every few days.
a french garden 