COMPOSTING BASICS
2 years ago whilst I was at the Woodford Folk Festival I made sure that I was at the talk by Costa, one of my all time gardening heroes. Now his talk was amazing - of course, but my attention was constantly being drawn to a poster being held high in the air towards the front which read, “COMPOSTING CAN SAVE THE WORLD”. I thought that was a bold statement and slightly over optimistic.
It was this poster that started my composting journey, well more to the point my serious composting journey as I had been composting for well over 25 years, but it turns out, I’d been composting badly for 25 years.
Back then, when I started composting, I wanted to do my part in ensuring that I didn’t put food scraps in the main bin to go to landfill and produce toxic gases that would harm the ozone layer. So there I was just throwing my food scraps in a black plastic bin every day.
As the days and weeks went by I was noticing that the bin was starting to get a bit smelly and looking a bit like a decomposing sludge bucket. Every now and then I would even surprise a mouse eating to it’s heart's content when I opened the lid. I knew I was doing something wrong because I never seemed to get that “black magic” onto my garden that I had been promised by every garden who spoke of composting.
Being the unevolved curious scientist that I’ve always been, I decided to look into this bold claim that composting can save the world a little further.
Over the past 2 years I think I’ve unknowingly made myself a bit of a “composting know-it-all”; the type that talks about composting at parties and thinks everyone else is fascinated by this amazing phenomenon. I’m sure they aren’t!
And as it turns out, I was doing it wrong all those years and there is a process. Good news is it isn’t rocket science and anyone can do it.
I’ll jump to the really easy stuff and skip the science lesson so I don’t bore you all.
You just have to get the balance of browns and greens right. That is, the carbons (brown waste) and the nitrogens (green waste). Roughly speaking, for every 1 part of green you put in the bin, you must put at least 1 part brown in.
On top of that, you need to keep the system aerated. Basically this means once a week you will get out a pitch fork or a specialised aerator spiral looking thingy and turn the compost bin materials around.
There are really only 3 major problems you will need to look out for and they are ridiculously easy to fix.
COMPOST STINKS: You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever opened the bin to a pongy smell - it’s foul. This means you aren’t getting enough oxygen into the system. To fix it, just make sure you give your pile a good turn every week or so.
COMPOST IS TOO WET: When you look or touch the compost it’s slimy and clumps together rather than loosely falling apart. This means you need to start adding more brown waste to the bin. Shredded paper, dried leaves, egg cartons, straw etc.
COMPOST IS TOO DRY: Ok now you’ve added too much brown and so you need to add a bit more green material. Grass clippings, fresh tree leaves, or some good old fashioned manure. You can even dampen the bin with a sprinkle from the garden hose but just don’t overdo it.
Now, if all you do is add to your bin every day and keep the balance of brown and green right with a bit of a turn once a week, in about 2 months your bin will be full and you can leave it for a further 1-2 months and I guarantee you will have the most amazing rich “black magic”’ to spread over your garden. It won't smell and it will be more powerful than any chemical fertilizer you can buy. Trust me!
My composting ritual is a little bit more complex as I try to speed up the process a bit. Aside from the daily adding of our kitchen scraps and brown organic sugar cane mulch or shredded paper waste, once a week, generally on a Sunday, I also throw in a handful of rooster booster and organic rockdust on the top. I water it in with 5 litres of diluted seaweed emulsion that has 2 tablespoons of molasses in it. This increases the microbial activity and speeds up the process.
I also have two bins going at our place: one which is taking daily scraps and slowly filling to the top, and the second one which is full and being left to brew. Once the first bin is finally full, it now becomes the second bin that will sit and brew and I empty the other bin in preparation for it to now become the first bin.
The whole process takes about 2 months from beginning to end. The end result is a composting party for my vegetables. I spread the compost around the base of my vegetables and cover the compost with a layer of mulch to stop it from drying in the direct sunlight and this will keep my vegetables fed for up to another 2 months. Yeehaa.
But how will it save the world I hear you asking.
Simple!
Over the past 50 years we have contributed more than 40 million tonnes of waste of which 80% of it could have been reused, recycled or composted. By reducing our food scraps we are essentially saving the amount of landfill sites required, of which there are becoming fewer and fewer available.
Reducing the amount of landfill sites required also means saving approximately $70 billion to build the infrastructure to stop methane gas emissions going into our atmosphere and big arse liners being put underground to stop leachate reaching our underground water systems. Leachate is a highly toxic liquid waste that is the byproduct of landfill. Yuck!
On average a household can compost about 64% of the items in their bin turning it into nutrient dense compost that can in turn restore the health of the soil. This increases the microbial density which retains water in the soil for longer and acts as a slow release fertilizer for plants. Meaning we don’t need to rely on synthetic (deadly) chemicals.
Compost also helps rebalance the soils PH level to a neutral level and eradicates soil erosion essentially stopping the spread of desertification (the process where once naturally green pastures turn into a desert wasteland).
These are just some of the most paramount justifications for how compost can save the world, there are many others but I hope you are getting a bit of a picture here of how significant compost actually is to us saving the planet during this current climate emergency.
Remember, it’s not rocket science. For every green bucket load, add a brown bucket load and aerate. Together we can all save the world one compost bin at a time.
If you want some guidance on how to start a compost bin, sign up to our newsletter or get in contact with me directly via info@littlegreenpatch.net
