Composting

One of the really interesting things we have learnt about having Workaways is that they bring different skills and know-how. Take for instance our composter. Over dinner we discussed that it may be good to use the partially composted material we had in it to fill part of the new bed, but as we talked about what state it might be in we started to learn that we hadn’t been doing the right things to create healthy compost that would encourage worms. Food waste I usually put in there includes onion peelings and lemon skins. Both apparently raise the acid levels too high and scare the worms off. Just as bad is that I recently threw in some vegetables, which were past their best. The problem was I put them in whole which apparently is a no-no, as everything that goes in should be chopped up or shredded as much as possible, to help it break down. Also, it’s good to add water occasionally, to help the decomposition. He also mentioned it’s fine to add our coffee grounds and ash from the fire, just as long as we mix it all in. All-in-all we were doing it completely wrong.

The next day Chris opened up the front of the composter and got stuck in. He split up any big lumps and turned the compost for us, showing me what I needed to be doing and what it should look like to achieve good compost. It’s now in a much better shape, and if we only add the right stuff going forward, keep it turned and watered periodically, it will soon balance out.

I think I was expecting too much would just happen on its own. Neither of us realised that you need to take a bit more care. Anyway, things are on the up — bring on the worms.