Home composting

How exciting to put garbage to good use. I wanted to give this a shot for a long time, and after long weeks of procrastination, I looked up a website called ‘Daily Dump’ on the internet. Reading about home composting, it seemed like a very simple and non fussy way to turn your vegetable and garden waste to rich organic manure. It seemed like something I should be doing, since I do have a few vegetable and flowering plants that require quite a bit of nourishment.

The composting kit includes three terracota pots or ‘khambas’. I have started using two of them, dividing my daily waste. After a month or so, or when they are half full, I have to empty the contents of both the pots, (which are semi- decomposed) into the third pot, and leave it in there for maybe another month or two for the process to complete.

Apart from the khambas, I also got packets of powdered cow dung (which acts like the compost accelerator) and neem powder (to keep flies away). I also got an accelerator spray (lemon grass scented). A bag of dry leaves, and a bag of saw dust, along with a rake and basket for sieving the compost when done.

While you need to stir the contents of the pots once everyday, a spoon each of cow-dung and neem powder are to be added once in three days, while the spray- once a week. If your compost mixture is too wet, you need to add the saw dust or dry leaves to absorb the moisture.

The process seems a bit slower for me, since we do not produce a large quantity of vegetable leftovers on a daily basis. But hopefully, in due time I would have a pot full rich nutritious compost! I will keep you posted.