The material that is left behind from your kitchen can be put to good use by making your own garden composter! The creatures that live in your soil (i.e. the bacteria, fungi, insects etc), consume and process the plant and animal ‘waste’. The great benefits of recycling your organic ‘waste’ are that you encourage wildlife, save money on fertilizers, reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce landfill and best of all, provide a substrate to grow your own healthy fruit and vegetables on!
Almost anything that has been alive can be composted. Farmyard manure, vegetarian pet manures and bedding(but not dog or cat faeces as they may contain dangerous pathogens), deciduous hedge clippings, used tea bags, grass mowings, vegetable scraps, and fruit skins etc (dead leaves can be added to the compost or stored separately to make a leaf mould mulch).
Most waste can be composted (~95%), and if it cannot, then it can usually be recycled. Some things not to add to your composter are persistent weeds such as couch grass, and meat and fish, as they tend to attract rodents (rats and mice) and flies. You are also best to leave out citrus fruits as the tiger worms in your composter do not like them.
Containers such as old bins can be used to directly grow your vegetables in; Small pots to dustbins and other plastic containers can be used. You can even make a removable side for access.
Larger scale bins and containers can hold enough compost to apply to allotments and garden plots. An ideal bin will have solid sides to retain heat and moisture and a cover to keep out the rain.
Frequent turning of the compost heap ensures that the compost is well oxygenated for the organisms to work.
Compost supplies plant foods, including trace elements, in a slow release form. It also improves the soil structure and improves the water holding capacity.
Compost, both garden and from a wormery can be applied as a surface mulch or incorporated into the top 15cm of soil or added to the tops of tubs or planters.
Worm compost tends to be faster acting than garden compost.
Composting is fired up through the natural processes of feeding the multitude of soil microbes that invade as soon as you start up your composter. If your household is limited to mainly kitchen scraps grass mowings and some weeds, you can make improved compost by adding in some household paper waste. Paper towels, cardboard boxes, egg boxes, pizza boxes, tubes etc can add ‘body’ to your compost. Ideally mix paper waste in equal quantities as the vegetation. Remember though to only use paper that cannot be recycled through the paper box!
If you have mainly kitchen waste then add the tiger worms and have a worm composter(see section on how to make your own wormery). If managed properly a worm bin will be smell free and will dispose of your kitchen scraps. The worm casts produced make high quality compost.