Pro Tips: Home Composting
Home composting is one awesome DIY way to give back to the Earth and to your garden. This sustainable practice is something anyone can do at home with some basic knowledge and commitment.
Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants. Organic matter in the case of home composting will most often be your kitchen waste or food scraps. Composting properly speeds up this natural process by creating an ideal environment of biological diversity, which results in a soil-like mixture, or compost, that is rich in nutrients that can be used in your home garden.
To go about home composting, you’ll need an indoor composting bucket to store your kitchen waste, and an outdoor compost pile to add them to. For your indoor compost bucket, this will likely be stored somewhere in your kitchen, so you’ll want to choose an appropriate container. Compost stinks, so your bucket should be something with an airtight lid.
For your outdoor pile, this is where the magic happens. It’s here that you’ll be creating an environment of biological diversity to break things down into the best quality end product you can. You’ll want to make sure your pile is contained into something with an exposed bottom where air can flow, but with the top covered to mitigate smell. For a good compost pile, you’ll want to go for a ratio of 60% browns to 40% greens. Browns are things like yard scraps - think leaves and wood chips. Greens are your food scraps from the kitchen. This 60% / 40% ratio creates fungally active compost that helps break things down efficiently.
Some people with a lot of compost materials might prefer a three-bin setup, with one bin for greens, one for browns, and one to mix it all together. For those with less materials, one mixed bin will work great. Stick to the 60% brown to 40% green ratio and mix regularly for a solid outcome.
To take your compost to the next level, there are a few products everyone should have in their composting toolkit. Bokashi Bran is a compost accelerator that helps keep the stink away. Bokashi Bran is full of live microbes that will ferment and compost your food scraps. These beneficial microbes contribute to the biologically diverse environment of your compost, and are proven to be a key ingredient for building healthy and productive soils. Add Bokashi Bran to your indoor home composting bucket anytime you add scraps to activate a pre-digestion of sorts before you add your scraps to your outdoor compost pile.
Another must-have product for home posting is EM-1. EM-1 is a compost activator for your outdoor compost pile. It reduces composting time, keeps the stink at bay, and increases that beneficial microbial activity. EM-1 is a liquid concentrate of a very broad spectrum of beneficial bacteria that work together to convert organic material into humus and to bind nutrients to create food for plants. You’ll want to mix 3 tablespoons to a gallon of water for every cubic foot of materials to be composted, and use a watering can or sprayer to water as needed. Just like the Bokashi, it’s all about creating as much biological diversity as you can for the highest quality compost.
Overall, composting is an easy thing to do if you keep it simple, stick to the basics, and enhance with helpful products. Happy composting!
