How to Compost With Food Scraps
Many gardeners prefer to use only organic methods when gardening. Wishing to avoid the noxious chemicals and poisonous toxins found in many commercial products, they use compost to enrich their garden plots. As much as 40 percent of the materials that the average household throws in the trash each day can be used to create organic compost. Food scraps are rich in beneficial nutrients to amend garden soil. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Compost pail or container
- Food waste
- Grass clippings and garden waste
- Water
Instructions
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Use a compost pail or covered pot to collect kitchen waste. Coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable and fruit trimmings, peels and cores, pasta, potatoes and stale bread are all ideal ingredients for adding to the compost pile. Avoid meat, dairy and items high in fat or vinegar content.
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Start a compost pile in a hidden spot in the garden. Build the pile on bare ground so that beneficial micro-organisms in the soil can act upon the compost. Some gardeners prefer to fence the compost pile, but this is not necessary. Add leaves, herbivore (cows, horses, goats, sheep and lamas) manure, garden waste, pine needles, straw, peat moss, grass clippings or aged, non-treated wood chips or sawdust. Any combination of organic materials may be used. Water until the material is thoroughly saturated. Cover the compost pile with a layer of heavy, black landscape plastic to accelerate decomposition. The plastic layer will trap the warmth of the sun. An increase in temperature speeds up the process.
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Add kitchen waste to the compost pile as it accumulates. Use a pitchfork to toss the pile each time you add food waste. Cover the kitchen scraps with the other materials to deter flies and rodents.
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Prepare "garden tea" from kitchen scraps. Place vegetable and fruit trimmings and any other organic food product in a 5-gallon bucket. Fill the bucket 2/3 full of kitchen waste. Add 2 cups of brown sugar or 1 cup of molasses. Fill the bucket with water and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Place the bucket in a sunny location and allow the mixture to age and ferment for 6 to 8 weeks. The mixture will have a pungent earthy odor and frothy composition when mature. Strain off the liquid into another 5-gallon bucket. A kitchen strainer or colander may be used. Dilute the liquid with three parts of water and use it to water houseplants and garden plantings weekly. For a continual supply of liquid organic fertilizer, add more kitchen scraps and sugar or molasses to the solids from the first batch and repeat the process.
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Bury your food scrapes. Another very simple method of utilizing food waste is to simply bury it directly in garden soil. Cover it with at least 8 inches of soil to discourage rodents and insects.
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