Saturday 3 August 2013

Compost

What are the benefits of compost?

According to the City of Whitehorse food waste currently makes up 44 percent of items currently found in the average rubbish bin. So the first and obvious benefit is we are reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. Better yet making compost - and applying it to your garden improves the soil by releasing the nutrients back into the soil, saving money on fertilisers along the way. 

How do you make compost?

According to Clean Up making your own compost is a lot easier than most people realise, and we agree.  A composting system can be started in specially made containers, wooden boxes, or in a simple heap. We opted for a system that looks like a Death Star! We chose this system because we have a small garden, and we can roll the Death Star to where we want to empty it.

Composting organisms require four equally important components to work effectively:
  • 'Green ingredients' such as kitchen scraps, fresh lawn clippings, weeds pulled from your garden - they supply nitrogen to the compost. If all you have is green stuff, your compost will turn into a stinky slime ball!
  • 'Brown ingredients' that supply the compost with carbon for energy (heat). These items are often drier than the green ingredients, leaves, branches, straw, etc.
  • Oxygen to enable the decomposition process (turn your compost regularly, or take the Death Star for a roll!)
  • Water, compost should be moist, but not soaking wet.

How do we collect material for our compost?

We bought a compost caddy for our scraps, which we keep on the kitchen bench. We use compostable liners and it snaps shut to keep in the moisture and the smells. Our Death Stars are located next to the Laundry door - making it easy to access them - no trips to the bottom of the garden path for us! We also add fallen leaves and straw to keep the green / brown balance. 

What's our secret ingredient?

No it's not 11 herbs and spices, just one herb - Comfrey. The leaves are a useful addition to compost as they contain silica, nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Comfrey leaves are about 15 to 30 percent protein which is as high as most legumes.

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