Walt

Two weeks of cardboard and no fruit and the lid is basically clear. Should have connected the melon rinds to the population boom.

All white and scattered, so it sounds like I've been panicking about the wrong thing.

Bottom was wetter than I expected. Poked the holes clear and got a surprising amount out.

Check size and edges too. A cubic metre is about the minimum for holding heat and it loses it fast in cold or windy weather — the outer 20cm never really cooks. Turning outside-to-inside is the fix, and covering with a tarp or an old carpet keeps a surprising amount of heat in.

The "tear, don't shred" point matters more than people realise. Finely shredded paper mats together into a wet layer that air can't get through. Hand-torn pieces the size of a playing card keep structure.

Keep a bag or bin of browns next to the tumbler permanently. That's the whole trick — the reason everyone ends up nitrogen-heavy is that greens arrive from the kitchen daily and browns require a trip to find. A sack of autumn leaves stashed in a corner solves composting for a year.

It is genuinely low effort once established — maybe five minutes a week. The main thing is not overfeeding in the first two months while the population builds.

Also plan for winter storage of scraps. Everyone's plan collapses in January when the path to the pile is under snow and it's dark at 4pm. A lidded bucket in an unheated porch freezes solid, which is fine and odourless, and you tip the whole frozen block into the pile in March.