Composting 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Garden Composting and Recycling

Did you know that about 45 per cent of your household waste is organic and compostable?
Recycling kitchen scraps and garden clippings that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills can offer a powerful way to give your garden a health boost, whilst helping the environment.

There are many ways to recycle and compost to produce nutrient-rich, natural fertiliser for your garden. To help you become a master composter, we’ll discuss the benefits of composting, the best ways to set up your backyard compost with dry hire machinery and what to consider when you first start recycling your organic waste.

Why is compost?

Instead of waiting for your local council to pick up your household waste, why not use it for your own benefit – and that of the environment? Starting to compost will transform your kitchen and garden scraps into a nutrient-rich product that’ll improve the quality of your soil and feed your veggie garden.

Many people are unaware of what happens during the composting process and believe that once the organic waste is put into landfills, the matter will just break down and decompose there. In the Council’s recycling centres, however, residential food waste is put in digesters (oxygen-free environments) and often mixed with non-compostable materials.

During the recycling process, a mix of methane and carbon dioxide – potent greenhouse gases, is released into the environment. Municipal landfills also contribute to groundwater pollution as heavy metals and acid liquid leachate with a high pollutant concentration are released during this process.

Composting your household and garden waste has many benefits, including:

• Keeping waste out of landfills, you can reduce your carbon footprint
• Reduce your household’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions
• Your garden soil will be healthier and there will be no need to use artificial fertiliser
• Reduce the amount of waste going into your bin

What to compost?

The greater the variety of material you use in your compost, the better the resulting soil quality will be. But not all matter is created equal! Here’s what you should and shouldn’t put into your compost;

Do include

• Leftover veggie and fruit scraps
• Bread and cereal
• Cooked pasta and rice
• Crushed eggshells
• Coffee grounds and tea leaves
• Torn up newspapers and egg cartons
• Wine corks (chopped up)
• Vacuum cleaner dust
• Hair clippings (even animal hair)
• Leaves, grass clippings and bush trimmings
• Cardboard without plastic coating (needs to be shredded)

Don’t include

• Meat and dairy products
• Fats or oil products
• Pet faeces of Omnivores (dogs and cats)
• Human waste
• Charcoal or coals
• Any non-organic materials
• Diseased plants and weeds (this may be transferred into your healthy garden)

Ways of Composting

For Limited Spaces: Worm Farms

Worm farms are a highly efficient way to reduce your household waste by 3-4 kg each week. Producing nutrient-rich fertiliser for your veggie garden or flower beds, they’re a great option for anyone looking to make their home more sustainable with a limited amount of space.

If you are living in an apartment or townhouse with no garden or backyard, vermicomposting (worm farming) may be a great option for you! Worm farms come in affordable compost bins that don’t look all too different from your regular bin.

Thanks to the little creatures, your worm farm will produce two types of products that are both helpful compost materials for you to use in your garden.

• Worm Castings

Worm castings are the nutrient-rich, organic fertiliser that worm farms produce. You might have already guessed it, it is essentially worm poo. The thick brown sludge is however the secret to many a gardener’s success. Improving soil aeration and drainage, when added to potting mixes for your indoor and outdoor plants or veggie garden, is very powerful. Therefore, a little goes a long way.

• Worm Juice

It might sound a bit off-putting, but it’s simply the liquid that is collected at the bottom of the worm farm. The worm juice collects many nutrients as it passes through the worm castings and also potentially picks up any less beneficial microbes along the way.

So if it smells bad, ditch it. Otherwise, you may use it in ornamental gardens or put it back into the worm farm to maintain appropriate moisture levels. If you’re unsure, simply avoid use in your veggie garden. It’s really the worm castings that you’re after.

The Backyard Option: Open Compost Heap

Gardening on property can be an endless task. Which means you need a reliable source of organic matter to fuel your veggie garden and flowers. If you have plenty of space available an open compost heap can be a great option – especially for composting newbies.

Whilst it’s not as neat and tidy as a bin, an open compost heap is easy to maintain – and can be camouflaged with a nice fence or tall plants if desired. It is best placed in a well-drained shady back corner of your property, preferably away from your house, as an open compost may give off a smell every now and then.

The compost pile shouldn’t be smaller than 1 m high and wide and no larger than 1.5 m, to warm up efficiently and not hold too much moisture – you do not want water to stand in your compost. Whilst it should be easily accessible to you, it is a good idea to make sure that your canine family members can’t get to it.

An open compost heap is a great idea if you need plenty of space for green waste such as tree clippings, leaf litter, old soil and dead plants. Should you plan bigger gardening projects, it also gives you a chance to explore using excavators, diggers and other DIY dry hire machines to transform and make the most out of your outdoor space.

How to compost

Keeping a worm farm is fun for the whole family and a great learning experience. It also gets the kids involved and interested in recycling. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when you first start composting:

• Keep a small compost bin in your kitchen

It’s like a regular bin but specific for compostable material. You can purchase small bins with charcoal filters to prevent them from smelling. Once you fill your bin you can empty it into your pile or worm farm to feed your compost.

• Keep your compost moist

You may have to water it every now and then to keep it moist – but not soggy! If your pile is in the open outside, the rain should keep it at the right moisture level, but if the weather is particularly dry, you need to remember to water your compost yourself on occasion.

In turn, if you’re experiencing a very rainy wet season, you may need to add brown materials, earth or shredded cartons to the mix to balance things out and absorb the excess moisture. Turning the compost more often will help, too.

• Turning and mixing your compost

You will need to turn or mix the contents of the compost heap occasionally to ensure that materials are broken down and composted efficiently. Turning bigger compost heaps can be a tedious task, which is why it might pay off to hire the appropriate DIY Hire equipment to help you introduce air and mix compost ingredients properly.

Worm composting (vermicomposting) is a different story, as you have hundreds of little helpers aerate the compost for you, mixing and turning the compost around as they move.

It’s time to start composting!

Whether you’re looking to dig out new garden beds or set up a new compost heap, Ryno Hire has the tools and equipment you need to get the job done. As the number one address for tradies, landscapers, and DIY handy-people, Ryno Hire is your destination for any dry hire equipment you may need for your next garden project: From excavators and loaders to mini dumpers and tipper trucks.

Talk to our friendly and knowledgeable team about your plans and find out more about our services by calling (07) 3353 2230 or enquiring online.