Composting: - some insights
Composting is one of the most satisfying activities for Australian gardeners, second only to growing plants. The notion of transforming waste materials from one state to another, and in doing so make them useful again is ultimately rewarding.
As most gardeners are aimimg to nurture nature, it therefore makes sense to recycle garden waste and kitchen scraps, therefore saving on garbage collection and easing pressure on landfill.
And it is so easy to do just by following a few easy guidelines.
Rule #1. Mix up your greens and browns.
This means always trying to keep a balance of soft green materials like grass cutting or shredded shrub cuttings - along with plenty of dry, brown materials like dead leaves, small twigs, paper and cardboard etc.
Rule #2. keep it areated.
Compost needs air to work well and if you just have an open heap you can turn it over with a fork every now and again. But if you have an enclosed composter thats not so easy. Hence the Compost Aerator tool - made of thick wire with a spiral end and 'Tee' shaped handle, it allows you to drill down into your compost and pull it upwards to 'shake-it-all-out' and get some air in there.
Rule #3. keep it moist.
It's important to keep your materials moist so the good bugs and bacteria can chomp through it all more easily - a bit like having some gravy with your roast !!
Heat or Worms??:
If you rely on worms to do all the work - as in worm farms, then you'll need to keep things cooler for them by keeping your composter or wormfarm in the shade.
If you rely on the bugs and bacteiria to make the decomposition happen then heat is good - they love it and perform best when warm. Place your composter in a warmer location and better still buy one that is thermally efficient and keeps the heat in that is generated by the bugs and bacteria in the first place.
If you have a mixture of both worms and bugs/bacteria then the worms will naturally congregate more in the middle of the composter, away from a sun-baked outer shell. So yes, you can have both and they will find their own equilibrium.
Rodents:
It is important to avoid adding any kitchen scraps that contain meat as this will attract rodents and other creatures to your composter.
But even if you are diligent then some of the sweeter smelling kitchen scraps can attact these unwanted garden pests. In this case you'll need a 'soil fence' which provides a barrier at the base of the composter to block access for any creatures that will try to burrow their way in.
Soil fences must provide no gaps, even relatively small for rodent access, so we recommend to lay down a sheet of shadecloth or small mesh chicken wire and place your composter on top of it. This will allow ingress/exit of water, worms, beneficial insects and bugs while providing an inpenetrable barrier to rodents.
Happy composting.