I used a tumbler for 1 and a half years before I moved on to larger and cheaper mesh bins. Just a well since the new tumbler center bar rusted thru after three or four years. The reference to a 'smell-free' aspect leads me to wonder about the material mix and moisture amount. No compost pile should be smelly, either a open or closed system. If it is, the composter needs to try a better mix, and put smelly stuff in the core. I never had any smell from any piles; even when smelly fish parts were put in the center. The core was always 130F or higher when fish were added.

Tilling wont spread this pest, it will probably help you a little though. Its not the seeds that you have to worry about, its the roots. This bad boy can sprout from as small a piece of root as 1 inch, and can live underground covered up by plastic for up to 5 years. The knot weed will just come up arround the plastic. However, It doesnt like lime,it doesnt like to be mown, and it has a hard time comming up through a healthy bed of grass... ( it will try though, if it has no other option). My recomendation would be to till up your piece of ground, and remove as many of the roots as you possibly can. Then mix large qty's of lime into the soil, and cover with heavy plastic, and build your raised beds. Lime the "infected area" arround your beds, add grass seed, and weed out any emerging shoots with extreem predjiduce! When your grass starts growing, mow it religiously! Ive successfully gotten rid of it from my yard using this method.

Speaking of birds...here's a couple pics of some feeding in the Fall...taken thru my LR window (afraid it was a bit dusty from gravel roads & no rain)...but this day we had a little rain. Here's the bird arbor probably 10' from LR windows: Here's a close-up of a couple birds feeding at that hanging feeder under the arbor: and here's a Bluejay that I tried to capture...feeding at the log birdfeeder in the left foreground of that "arbor pic"...I was interrupting his lunch & he gave me a stare: Oh well, back to it ...windy that day as you can see some feathers moving: Just wanted to share...thanks, luvs, for thinking of me. Jeanne S.

Hey Raven-- Thanks for sharing the links. I chose a free book, Sentence of Marriage, and downloaded it to my PC, then sent it to my Kindle. It looks interesting, and appears to be legal. It was already formatted for Kindle, too. Nancy