Composting is a good way to recycle your food waste! Turning food scraps and green waste into food for plants and soil.
There are some common beliefs about home composting – many people think “it’s too complicated”, “it smells bad” and “it’s a messy job”. Yes, composting can be complicated, smelly or messy if you do it the wrong way.
The 3 types of composting
Did you know that there is more than one way how to compost? In fact, there are different ways to do it and some might suit you better than others.
Cold composting is a simple way of collecting food scraps and green waste and adding them to a compost bin or pile. The main difference is, you don’t need to turn it. However, cold composting typically takes from 6 months to 1 year or even longer.
Hot composting is a bit different. Hot composting kills everything with self-generated heat (diseased material, seeds, biota). It also breaks down the structure of the garden and food waste quickly so that they can be used on the garden combined with, or instead of soil. It is a fast process (3-4 weeks) and the end result looks like moist soil.
Vermicomposting/ Worm farm is made with the help of worms. The worms compost your food scraps when they digest them. Harvesting your worm garden fertiliser happens about every 3-6 months.
Composting Basics
Composting can be really simple. These are the three main ingredients:
- Browns – (dead leaves, branches, and twigs)
- Greens – (grass clippings, vegetable waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds)
- Water
Your compost pile should have an equal amount of brown to green ingredients.
