Fast forward to now
Its been around 8 months since the start, and here's where the pile is now. Its taken many months (did you think composting is fast 😜 ?), but its a decent compost for a very first attempt, without even using a compost starter.
A month ago I've finally started using the cured compost from the running pile and putting into my pots. Its beautiful, deep brown, crumbly - though not as fine as one would have hoped for. Still, the source material is completely changed, and that's the sign of cured compost.
The good and the bad
- Almost every day, come rain or shine, I've aerated the pile, ie turned it over multiple times so that it had great air circulation
- Exposed to the rain once in a while
- Diligently maintained a good mix of greens and browns - I believe this helped me prevent the problem of flies and maggots, since the brown material absorbs all the decomposing liquids
- Unfortunately that led to a different issue where I've not kept the pile moist - it seems the pile should always be a bit moist else there is a slow down in the decomposition process - which is what seems to have happened with me
- And I didn't shred the material fine enough - I realize that I should have been more finely shredding some of the tough waste 🤷♀️
The joy of small things
A bit of daily effort has led to a lot of benefits and personal satisfaction.
We don't have a household wet waste dustbin anymore! Everything goes into the pile daily. I think this is the most stunning bit - imagine not contributing waste into the world. (We have been segregating waste for ever, so the dry garbage of course still needs to be dumped, but at least we are not producing any wet garbage on a daily basis.)
Similarly no garden waste gets ummm.... wasted. It all goes into the compost pile.
The cured compost is now getting put into all the ~100 plants that I have growing, and I hope that it will enrich them, and make them grow better / faster / healthier.
And of course, its a small ecocycle - from waste to soil (compost) to use in growing vegetables and flowers, which then make their way back into the compost bin.
haribaghpro
Commented 28 Jun, 2021
That's amazing to read. Your composting journey and tips will be so useful for everyone. Thank you for sharing. The colour and texture of that 8-month old compost is a delight to look at. Your plants must be loving it!
Are you thinking of adding worms to your process sometime? Here's a good tutorial we found helpful in our first experiments with that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmXgPXafoPo