GardenHow to install and use a composter?

October 4, 2020by Laurianne Gandy0
https://i2.wp.com/www.ouidoo.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Compost6.jpg?fit=564%2C337&ssl=1
1. Why composting?

In addition to being free and ecological, composting reduces the volume of waste by 30%, feeds the garden soil and avoids the use of fertilizers, which are harmful to the environment.

2. How composting works

In order to make good compost, you need all three of these factors: oxygen, water and heat. It is these three elements that allow the development of fungi, bacteria, insects and earthworms that transform waste into compost.

Aeration of wet waste triggers the composting process and raises the temperature to between 50 and 60°C for about a week before gradually decreasing.

3. What composter?

You can choose to make a compost heap in a corner of your garden or opt for a compost bin to buy or build. There are several types of compost bins:

- The wooden or plastic bin

Pinterest: spotted at Côté Maison

- The Vermicomposter

Pinterest: spotted at Urba Gardens

- The rotary composter

Pinterest: spotted at armenko.fr

4. What to put in it?

Pinterest: spotted at Attainbable Susatainable, Better Together Home and Mowing Lawn

In order for the compost to degrade optimally, some wastes are to be preferred while others are clearly to be set aside.

Promote organic green waste such as :

- Kitchen waste: vegetables, fruit, egg shells, dried fruit, cheese crusts...

- Coffee grounds, coffee filters, tea...

- Pruned plants: foliage, flowers, green plants, straw, twigs...

- Mowed grass, untreated

- Dead leaves

- Wood chips and sawdust

In small quantities:

- Colourless newsprint, cardboard and torn kraft paper

- Tissues and paper towels

- Branches and pieces of wood

Do not compost:

- Citrus fruits

- Onion, garlic

- Meat, bones, fish and dairy products

- The tofu, the beans

- The bread

- Oil and fat,

- Animal dung

- Sick plants, weeds, insecticidal plants

- Non-organic waste

5. Making compost

Pinterest: spotted at La Pause Jardin

  1. a) Choose a flat, well-drained, easily accessible location with little sunlight to prevent the compost from drying out.
  2. (b) Arrange a mixture of straw, leaves, twigs and bushes on a layer of about 30 cm.
  3. c) Alternate layers of different composites by differentiating between brown materials, rich in carbon, and green materials, rich in nitrogen, and then water each layer.

Brown matter: dead leaves, dry twigs, crushed branches, wood chips and sawdust, bark, straw

Green material: kitchen waste and fresh grass clippings.

  1. d) Aerate and stir regularly. Water in hot weather as the compost must always be kept moist.
  2. (e) As the stack diminishes over time, add layers of waste
6. Using compost

Pinterest: spotted at N.C.R., found at http://www.homewalldecor.ga.

The compost matures in about 6 months. It should be uniform, odourless and dark, almost black in colour.

It is ideal as a fertilizer and can be placed in autumn or spring in potted plants, vegetable gardens, flower beds, lawns and at the foot of trees and shrubs.

7. Bokashi: the alternative to traditional composting methods

Pinterest: spotted at Kuhlmann's, found at http://www.apartmenttherapy.com

Bokashi is a Japanese term meaning "fermented organic matter".

Bokashi has several advantages, including being odourless, taking up little space (it can be installed in a kitchen) and degrading more waste than traditional compost. In fact, in addition to the waste mentioned above, one can add prepared food, meat, bones, fish, citrus fruits, dairy products, fat, ashes, animal waste, glass, metal, sick plants...

The necessary equipment consists of a bucket with a tap and a Bokashi biological activator containing microorganisms.

This composter allows a rapid degradation of the waste, within a few days, and gives a liquid fertilizer very rich in nutrients called "compost tea".

 

Laurianne

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright Ouidoo S.A