How To Compost At Home - From Your Kitchen To Your Garden

In a world where recycling plays a big role in our future of a sustainable planet, composting is becoming more and more common in households around the world.

You may already have a compost container setup for food scraps in your kitchen. These can be easily transferred to your garden compost area. Alternatively, your local municipality may provide a compost bin for collection. Either way, it’s a wise idea to start composting at home.

If you haven't considered it yet, this article will describe how to compost at home - from your kitchen to your garden, contributing food scraps to yet another worthy cause. 

Composting not only helps to spare room in landfill, but it also contributes to the healthy growth of new plants. These are essential for our planet, and not only that, imagine growing your own very tasty fruit and vegetables right in your backyard.

Set Up An Area in Your Kitchen

There are a variety of compost caddies that sit on your kitchen bench top ranging from stainless steel to various colours of porcelain to match your kitchen design if you are so inclined.

Some are ventilated or fitted with charcoal filters to reduce smelly odours, and they are also easy to clean. Set it up as close to your food preparation area as you can so it’s in a handy position when you need to use it. Being close by also reminds you to use it.

There are certain things that you can put into your compost and others that you want to keep out. Unfortunately, not every food scrap is warranted for composting.

What Can Go Into My Compost?

• most fruit and vegetable scraps, including banana peels

• crushed egg shells

• coffee grounds

• tea bags without the string and staple

What Can’t Go Into My Compost?

• citrus, tomatoes, and pickled food (too acidic)

• bones from meat and fish

• meat and fish scraps (too smelly)

• dairy, fats, and oils (these items will not break down)

How To Set Up a Compost Area In Your Garden

1. Find a suitable position that gets lots of sunshine, if possible.

2. Mark out an area as big or small that suits you.

3. Build a structure or buy a garden compost bin to contain the compost materials. You can find these at most hardware stores.

4. Begin with a bare layer of soil.

5. Cover the bottom with some cardboard, straw, twigs, or dead leaves, about 10 centimetres high to provide aeration. You can sprinkle a thin layer of soil over the base to hold it in place.

6. Add some grass clippings for nitrogen, followed by the scraps from your kitchen. Alternating the layers is advised to get the most out of the composting process.

7. Keep the pile moist as the worms like it moist.

Tending To The Compost

The smartest thing you can do for your compost pile is to ensure it is aerated. You can do this by using a three-pronged cultivator and turning it through the compost heap. Aerating and keeping the mound moist will encourage earthworms, (you may know them as long red wigglers), to be attracted to the mound. In turn, they will keep it healthy for you as they eat their way through it.

When the worms eat the scraps and digest them, they release the waste back into soil-like products after being converted into organic material. This helps to eliminate unnecessary waste to produce nutrient-rich soil, ready for planting seeds or seedlings.

Using The Compost

This is a process. You will need to wait at least one month, maybe longer, before you start using your compost. It needs time to decompose before you can start spreading it around the garden. Mixing the compost through the soil where you plan your planting, whether it be in pots or a garden bed, will work favourably with your plants.

If you are fortunate enough to have a garden, using compost, especially in your veggie patch, will encourage healthy growth for your vegetables. It’s a win-win situation. Of course, your garden's variety of fruit and vegetables, not only tastes great but will also encourage you to maintain a healthy eating plan. I find the flavour of homegrown produce is always tastier than what you buy in the supermarket.

So get composting and let me know how you go in the comments below. I’d love to hear about your journey with composting and what you are attempting to grow. Most importantly, how your fruit and veggies taste knowing you had a hand in producing them.

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