Compost Wars

For anyone who has ventured with trepidation into the world of “gardening” will have heard the all too familiar talk on Compost! Those experienced in gardening can talk at length of the benefits of compost while the beginners can see nothing but dirt. Can it be important? Yes it can.

Next of course is where to get it. While garden centres are stacked full, the eager gardener turns from such shop bought products and instead looks towards home-made.

When my partner and I first moved to our current residence, where we were greeted by both a front and back garden, the one thing I quickly found out was how creating one’s own compost was not always as easy as people made it out to be.

Don’t get me wrong, when you get the hang of what you are doing it’s great but until that point, when a new gardener first starts it can be pretty tricky.

So after our first failure with a regular compost bin followed by a few million suggestions from everyone and his dog who pass by, we decided to do a bit of trial and error testing. It wasn’t long before we had a plethora of compost creating devices all doing their thing!


REGULAR COMPOST BIN
Ours was a black plastic conical shaped bin with no bottom, a pop-off lid and a small hatch at the base to retrieve the compost. When we moved in, there was a medium one of these and we attempted to make compost immediately.

Without much space, the bin ended up against a hedge that promptly grew over it so adding anything new was difficult. I also found that the lid did not come off easily and too often the whole bin was being hoisted into the air while I kicked and struggled.

I found these types of compost bins did better when they had a good mixing and often, but I found these tasks hard to manage (especially being only small myself). The benefit of course is that the open bottom encourages all sorts of insects and worms into the mix.

The bin failed on the first attempt because we had only one. The waste generated by the two gardens and the kitchen wasn’t very equal and as any gardener will tell you the right ingredients for compost are everything! It became too easy to dump in all the grass cuttings but have no “brown” waste to add. This made the contents a bit too slimy.

The Council then issued everyone a free one so we received another – this time large and overbearing in our small back garden. However with two, we were able to make sure each bin got equal share so things such as grass cuttings that were halved into each rather than filling one. With an even bigger bin, my partner was given the main duty of dealing with them.

However even with two, these bins seemed to take forever to generate anything as well as being a little temperamental so we stepped it up….


WORMERY
This is definitely one of my favourite things in the garden. I purchased the Can-o-worms kit, a self contained wormery with a thousand worms, coir block, moisture mat and some anti-lime pellets. This type of wormery has three perforated trays that sit atop each other and a chamber section at the bottom to catch the liquid cast off (complete with “worm island” in case any fall in they can climb the island and not drown).

Again it took a little time, getting the thing set up making sure the worms were comfy and not attempting any escapes. However once these little critters are settled in they go wild! I got the wormery during a summer and the warm weather helped to speed them up.

It wasn’t long before we had one tray full of beautiful rich dark compost and a sump that produced litres of “worm juice” a week. The draw back with a wormery is that like a normal compost bin you can’t add things like meat or fish to it and the worms can’t take citrus either. They are mainly for kitchen waste rather than garden though they can take a weed or two. Also, you need to check them carefully to make sure you add just the right amount. Too much and the food waste will become too mouldy and the worms won’t touch it. Too little and they’ll be trying to escape to find more food.

Overall a great purchase for getting rid of most kitchen waste and the worm juice benefits are incredible. All my garden plants thrive on the stuff!  We have not paid for plant food since we got our wormery!


TUMBLER
However with a lot of gardening going on due to re-designing the gardens, I still needed something that could help with the garden waste that was being generated. So I turned to another device. The Tumbler sounded promising as its design allowed you to mix the compost by simply turning the large drum on its axis.

Without sitting directly on the ground meant the usual critters such as earthworms didn’t get into it, but other insects still managed to climb in through the holes in the side. The frame it was supported on meant we could drag it around the garden to the areas it was needed.

When first using the tumbler I immediately saw the difference. Not only did spinning it help to mix the contents quickly and efficiently, but the compost was always “hot” and so broke down much faster. If the right ingredients were added, the tumbler boasted usable compost within as little as 21days.

Emptying it was easy enough remove the lid and tip it up. The only draw back was you did need to be strong because as it got more full, spinning it on the axis became a problem for little ol’ me so I had to get assistance from my partner. You also need to be careful that it doesn’t swing back and clonk you on the head!

Overall, excellent for creating good, quick compost! Even better for those with small gardens as it can sit on the patio!


BOKASHI
Not a composter per-say but a food waste converter.  While I am vegetarian now, my partner and I were both meat eaters and so generated some “meat” waste. With the other compost units all proving themselves nicely, I felt annoyed at having to throw any food waste. This was solved when I found out about the Bokashi system.

Like the wormery, it is a self contained unit. It comes as a bucket with a tap underneath for catching the liquid cast off and a grill that sits at the bottom. Kitchen waste (including meat!) is added in layers, with each layer being covered with the special bran. This bran contains micro-organisms that break down the food and “pickle” it.

It was a simple enough process, just add food, add bran, squish the layers with a piece of card and then add the lid tightly. When the bucket was full you add an extra thick layer of bran and seal it for about two weeks. This mixture was then to be added to the garden by digging a trench and spreading the contents out then covering.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough garden to make numerous trenches so the whole idea seemed like a bust until I was informed that the contents could be added to a regular compost bin to break down with the other ingredients. In fact the pickled contents of the bokashi helped to create a nice balance within our regular compost bin!


CONCLUSION
With a lot of options on the market, the best thing is to decide what you want to tackle. If you want quick and easy to produce compost then the tumbler is a great choice. However if time isn’t an issue but you want to create a lot of compost, then the regular compost bins will probably be better.

For veggie kitchen waste, the wormery is a great purchase especially if you aren’t squeamish of worms as sometimes you need to move the contents to check they are okay.

If you have meat left overs as well as veg, consider getting a bokashi kit as this little bin can even be kept in the house and can convert your kitchen waste into pickled goodness. However remember you’ll need a garden to dig the mixture into or another type of compost bin to help dispatch of it.


ADVICE
My personal advice is deal with compost-making on a trial and error basis. You can read all the books in the world but in the end it comes down to “messing about” until you get it right. Many things come into play such as weather, location, content etc… so find out what works best for you.

In winter make sure you wrap your wormery in bubblewrap around the sides to keep them safe from cold and frost. This will also keep them working as normally the cold would slow down their metabolism. Add bubblewrap to a normal compost bin too as this can keep it “hot” and help the break down process.

Don’t be put off by the amount of insects in your compost, as they need some insect life to help. However if you find a lot of flies in your wormery add some shredded paper (not heavily printed on!) and some strips of cardboard.


Happy composting!