Composting At Home
The infamous green bucket I use to collect my kitchen scraps
Alice Waters
I always wanted to start a compost at home in theory, but it all seemed a bit too complicated, messy and time consuming.
Then I watched a Masterclass course featuring food legend Alice Waters which showed her cooking at home. She had a simple silver pail AKA bucket which she put on her kitchen bench to collect all her food scraps.
After cooking she simply walked outside and put the scraps on her compost heap and covered it with dry material. It was beautifully simple and sustainable. Sold!
I immediately set off to the shops in search of a chic silver pail. I came home with a bright green plastic bucket from Woolies, but the composting has been going strong ever since!
Nothing gives me more satisfaction than seeing my used vegetable, fruit and flower scraps go straight into my makeshift compost bin to create more fertility for my veggie patch. It's the ultimate win-win.
Keep It Simple
There's nothing difficult about creating a compost at home and the main thing I've learned is it's a simple process that doesn't need to be complicated.
At heart, a compost is just a space where you can safely house veggie scraps and dry grass clippings together. I've tried four different materials for my compost set ups and they have all worked beautifully, so choose what works for you:
Pallets: my brother created two tubs next to each other out of recycled pallets with a pallet gate at the front.
Makeshift bin: I had some spare plastic rubbish bins at my house so I cut out the bottom and used them as compost bins.
Chickenwire: a friend set up an open air compost for me using chickenwire with a timber stake in each corner.
Black bin: I've also bought a simple black compost bin from Bunnings which worked just fine.
I place the compost bin directly on top of the soil, but you can also set up compost on the grass or concrete, just place cardboard on the ground underneath it. In my kitchen, I keep a bucket next to my bench for veggie scraps.
Layer Cake
My composting routine consists of filling the bucket in my kitchen with veggie scraps and taking them out to my converted 'rubbish bin compost' in my backyard when full.
I layer the compost each time. I add the wet/green scraps in (like vegetable peels) first, then cover them with dry/brown material I have on hand (like newspapers or dried grass clippings) and build on it each week. I also throw any old soil in the mix too. And that’s it. Simple!