My Experiences With Composting

I’ve been composting for a few years now.  I don’t claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination however I have learnt a few things.  The first things that I have learnt about composting is how much easier it is than I initially thought.  I don’t know really what I was expecting however I thought that it would somehow involve a lot of work. 

So the first thing that I did was to buy a plastic compost bin.  They look pretty expensive however there cheap ones that can be bought from Waste Aware Scotland.  When you have bought the bin that you feel is suitable for you, then just place it in an area of garden where there is bare soil.  There’s no point in placing it on concrete or some other hard surface because worms won’t be able to get into the compost.

You need to encourage worms (plus other creatures such as slugs and snails) into your compost because they help to break the ingredients down into a form you can use in the garden.  In addition to these critters, you’ll also need to allow oxygen in.

If your compost doesn’t get enough oxygen, it will start to stink really bad and methane is produced.  To so this, just use a fork to mix things up a bit.  In landfills, you get a really bad smell and lots of methane because oxygen isn’t able to get into the rubbish.  Instead everything is compacted down so much that no oxygen is present.  That’s one of the reasons why composting is great for the environment.

So what do you add to the compost heap?  Well, kitchen scraps are really excellent.  This includes vegetable peelings, apple cores, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells.  However you also need to add in dry items such as paper, cardboard and sawdust.

Having a blend of lots of different ingredients will allow the composting process to go along well.  One thing that I did have a problem with was flies.  Nobody wants flies in their compost, so if you are experiencing this too you need to add in more of the dry items such as paper, cardboard, straw and sawdust etc.

However, if you add in too many dry ingredients your compost won’t decompose as it should.  This might sound pretty tricky but it isn’t really.  You will start to get a hang of what your compost needs.  Another thing I should mention is that you need to avoid adding in cooked food.  This is simply because it will attract vermin.

Hopefully this will now give you an idea of what you need to do to start a compost heap of you own.  It can take about a year because you get any compost and when you do you will have a great sense of achievement.