Easy kitchen compost for gardening

You’ve got extra vegetable scraps, and some dry leaves around your plants that you were saving up to make compost but don’t know where and how to start. We’re here to help you!

Easy Kitchen compost

What is compost? 

It’s a mixture of degraded substances that acts as a fertilizer for the soil. Being made from organic substances for organic use, this makes it an excellent natural additive for soil.

As a fellow plant parent myself living in an urban setting, we have our own limits. Like,

• Confined space
• Lesser sunlight
• And limited sources

Worry not, these create a perfect opportunity for some gold soil!

Making compost almost feels like cooking a recipe. 

Except it takes a few months. 

Good old things take time to happen, breakdown of organic matter too takes time as it’s an unhindered process occurring with the help of good bacteria and microbes. 

So what exactly is the process of compost making?

To one’s surprise, it’s super easy. 

AND IT’S ABSOLUTELY NOT AS MESSY AS IT SEEMS

Thousands of microbes, bacteria, and fungi work in sync. 

They consume food waste, and oxygen present and in return produce heat and carbon dioxide.

This results in increased heat in the compost, which further increases the speed of the process!

How do we make compost?

Our job is to provide these organisms with their food and the right conditions to thrive. 

Shall we get started?

Ingredients: 

1. Wet waste
2. Dry waste
3. Microbes (starter)
4. Water 

• Wet waste:

Scraps like vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds, used tea leaves are wet waste. These are basically the Organic food for the microbes that are going to live in compost. However, eggs, dairy products, meat products and cooked food  should be avoided as they could attract vermin (harmful insects and animals like rats). 

• Dry waste:

These include dry leaves, fallen leaves, twigs. Cardboard is considered a great source for dry waste along with newspapers. However, heavily printed papers and other forms should be avoided so as to reduce leaching of chemicals in the compost. These form the nitrogenous part of compost. 

• Microbes:

The charm of the whole recipe!

While microbes are not necessary to add as they always find their way around. But to increase the speed of the process some users recommend adding jaggery or curd. These ingredients contain healthy bacteria and microbes that truly kick start a newly compost setup. 

Some also recommend using Trichoderma, it’s a healthy soil fungus that speeds up the breakdown process and also provides protection to the plants growing around it later on. 

• Water:

Water is the buffer for an ideal environment here. 

The amount of water or one should specify as ‘moisture’ is of major importance in the setup. 

While a lot of new users make the mistake of adding too much or too little of water. This leads to sogging or a really dry environment where microbes are unable to thrive. And thus attracting all sorts of insects and smells! 

Conditions for compost:

• pH: 

pH determines the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. 

7 is neutral- as most plants like their soil to be.

pH between 1-7 is acidic- which plants like hibiscus, hydrangeas need.  

While 7-14 is basically alkaline- plants like lavender, blueberries love it. 

So how can we alter the pH in our compost? 

By simply adding more substances of which pH we need. 

Like adding more nitrogenous substances like leaves, wood chips, leaf mold can lower the pH.  

And aerating the compost can significantly increase the pH. 

With that, comes out next condition to discuss,

• Aeration:

There are 2 types of microbes and organisms,

1. Aerobic: That needs air to thrive. These microbes break down faster than anaerobic ones.
2. Anaerobic: The ones that don’t need air to survive and work much slower than aerobic bacterias. However, these bacterias also produce methane as a result of breakdown. And methane has a foul smell! 

How to make sure there are less anaerobic organisms?

 By mixing the compost every once a while, or when you feel that the compost is getting too hot or else it’s not necessary. 

• Temperature:

An ideal temperature for making compost is 32°C TO 60°C and usually this temp reaches automatically. So you needn’t worry. But low temperature (<18°C)  significantly decreases or inactivates the majority of microbes needed for organic degradation.                                                                             

• Light:

Making compost as such does not require light or even sunlight! 

This was one of my doubts when I started learning about composting. But don’t fret!  Microbes here don’t need sunlight and in fact heat from sunlight can increase the temperature than it already is. This leads to overheating and microbes might just die at a certain temperature and this could lead to rotting, therefore foul smelling. 

So an ideal place for compost would be a corner of your balcony or near your window. Where there is shade and proper aeration. 

This all ensures that there are the right conditions for the microbes to grow and thrive. 

Step by step tutorial for a small batch of compost: 

Materials to use:

• Any bucket or leftover paint bucket with holes poked around (for aeration) 

One can also use earthen pots with drilled holes at the bottom. 

• 1:1 ratio of wet and dry waste 
• Water- as per requirement 

Procedure :

1. In your bucket add a layer of dry waste and newspapers or cardboard pieces. Around 1- 1.5 inches is enough. Do remember, bigger pieces take much more time to break down than smaller pieces. So ideally cut newspapers and cardboard into pieces as per your container size. 
2. Now add an equal or lesser layer of wet waste. 
3. Add an equal layer of soil, if you have some compost soil in hand you can add in this step and kickstart the process sooner! You can definitely add Trichoderma or jaggery/ curd in this step too! (But it’s completely optional)
4. Repeat step 1, 2 and 3 until the container is full and end the last layer with dry waste so as to kind of seal the layer. Do not fill it completely upto brim but an inch of space is enough for the bucket to be nicely aerated. You can add water in between if you feel the layers to be dry but do not make it soggy. Just a few sprays or sips would be perfect! 
5. Finish off with adding a lid to the container. 
6. Now sit back and let the microbes do the work! 
7. You can check the compost, once a while maybe once a week but initially (first 15 days) it is advised to leave it alone and let microbes do the job. 

Around 1-2 weeks later, you might feel the level of the compost has decreased. That’s because the microbes are munching on them and breaking them down!

And that’s when you’re supposed to continue adding a layer of wet and dry waste, again keeping in mind to keep the top layer covered with dry waste.

8. As 2-3 months pass by following these steps along with occasional mixing if there is imbalance in aeration, you might notice the material in the container is turning dark and starts to smell earthly. Which also reminds you of your native place’s soil 😉

That’s when you know, your compost is ready! 

You can sieve the bigger parts that haven’t degraded yet and again add them in the same container. 

Rest finer particles can be used as your ‘Golden soil’ for the plants! 

Hence, this cycle continues further on! 

Right from step 2. 

Does making compost attract insects and smell foul?

I’ve had this doubt since the beginning and I see numerous people avoiding making compost exactly for this reason. 

Like, I can completely understand having insects around at home followed by a foul smell that might as well disturb the neighbours. 

But trust me, it’s all about balance!

With the right ratio of wet (organic matter) and dry wastes (nitrogenous matter) there can never be any of these problems.

And if at all there is, fear not! These can be solved very easily. 

Ants or any other insects around and in the compost:

While it’s sometimes beneficial, ants can be annoying. There are natural and chemical methods for keeping them away. 

• Natural methods:

 If the compost seems too dry, add water as sometimes ants find their way through the dry wastes. 

As Saurav Saran one of the members says,

“It’s best to keep turning the compost to aerate as well as repopulate degrading bacterias mixed well in biomass.

Turning will disturb ant colonies. Constantly disturbed ant colonies will automatically leave the compost pile.” 

• Chemical method:

Adding borax powder/  turmeric or diatomaceous earth could also work. But what most of the users suggest is to stick to the natural methods after all, it’s all a work of nature.

In the end I’d like to say, composting is the easiest way to reuse, reduce and recycle our kitchen waste! 

And I wish everyone knew how easy it is!!