Quick How To

We promise composting is easier than some people make it out to be. Of course, it can be micro-managed and some people adhere to pretty strict rules about citrus, onions, etc and that too is fine. But just to get you started here are the fundamentals in a nutshell.

• Start with 50:50 Brown to Green (Carbon to Nitrogen ratio) and play with your own balance from there. Too wet, add more brown, too dry - add more green (or sometimes you do just need to give it a little spray with water).

• Layer brown and green like a lasagna.

• Brown = dried leaves, newspaper, small sticks, etc.

• Green = your kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, etc. If you have a massive lawn and a small cold compost, don’t go throwing all of your lawn clippings in this compost, you’re better off creating a large compost bay and hot composting (see below).

Now: Hot versus Cold compost.

HOT - one-time pile creation - layer (C:N), wet, check temp, turn - repeat.

• Hot - you need a very large pile, at least a meter cubed. However, if you live in a cold region like the Snowy Mountains you want to go bigger, more like 2m3.

• Why so big - the pile needs to build up the heat: 55 degrees Celsius for at least 3 days, and this means all parts of the pile so you have to move the outside to the centre so that all parts of the pile get a chance to be that hot.

• Why heat - it breaks down pathogens (found in cooked food, meat, and dairy), and it destroys weed seeds.

COLD - additions are made as required. With each bucket of scraps from the kitchen, add roughly the same in brown material. Turn at least a few times a week. Aerobic respiration is key (air). *Turn = stick a garden fork in the pile, twist, and flip, you’re trying to move the outside stuff to the middle and bring the bottom material up).

• These smaller, manageable cold piles can still get warm, but generally nowhere near as hot as 55 degrees C.

• Because they are cold, this method will not safely destroy all pathogens or weed seeds. Therefore it is recommended that in this style of composting you avoid adding cooked food, dairy, and meat.

Do not compost pet waste - maybe buy a home biogas generator and use that instead.

The word on onion and citrus - these two get a lot of attention. The advice below pertains to cold compost, hot composting is far more forgiving.

If you’re making French Onion Soup every day and are disposing of 20 tops and tails (and that annoying first skin layer), perhaps avoid putting it all in the compost at once. If the soup is a one-off, then go for it, add the onion to the compost.

Citrus - if you have just juiced your entire lemon tree and it was a bounty, probably avoid putting it all into your compost at one time.

If you notice that your pile stinks, has an excessive amount of flies, just doesn’t seem to be breaking down, or a combination of these and other problems. Please get in touch, we’re happy to troubleshoot.

Worm Farming

You can start with an old bath, or you can buy whatever type of worm farm that tickles your fancy on the internet. I personally am not a huge fan of plastic and I do like to recycle items (like old baths), so presently mine are in a bath, before that however they were in an old drinks cooler and they were happy there too.

The things you need to remember about worm farms are; airflow, drainage (although contrary to popular belief there should be no leachate (worm tea) but more on that later), a bed (coconut coir), food (C : N ratio [Brown : Green]), blanket (I like to use a combo of wool packaging insulation and newspaper), and a cover/lid (do not let them get rained on).

Insulation is also a consideration depending on the extremes of temperature in your part of the world.

To feed: Layer the C:N ratio and do not turn. Monitor for leachate (liquid running out) and adjust the feeding regime until the liquid stops running (add more C, more on this below).

I like to give these my guys the Crème de la crème of scraps (cut up too), but that’s just me, and not necessary.

Worm Tea fallacy. If your worm farm has liquid running out of it, this is not worm tea, it is bacterial leachate and it means that you need to add more carbon to your farm (brown material).

To make ‘worm tea’ mix water with a quantity of the finished vermicast, strain and use immediately. If you do not plan to use this tea straight away, it will need to be aerated otherwise the good bacteria in the tea will perish.

For more info on this listen to: https://www.probioticlife.net/episodes/028