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Compost for beginners

Vikings90Vikings90 Posts: 4
in Problem solving
I am totally new to gardening and just had my garden renovated. I have mostly Indian stone with a small area of gravel and a sleeper bed which I plan to fill with shrubs and flowers.

The thing I’m stuck on is if I can and how I can make my own compost/plant food. I’m very keen on reducing my food waste and utilising things like veg peelings in a sustainable way.

I’ve seen so many options. Worm composting, big plastic compost bins, bokashi, rotating bins. I’m totally lost! 

I wonder if you could advise the best option for a gardening noob trying to be more sustainable with food waste? Any advice appreciated :) 

Posts

  • Vikings90Vikings90 Posts: 4
    Thanks Pansyface. The garden is reasonably big but mostly paved. The gravel area in small but it could go there I’ll be putting a couple of planters there for veg/herbs. There is a small lawn but I want to keep that intact and not damage it by covering with a bin. And the bed isn’t that big. So I think it will need to go either on the gravel or on the stone but in my other bin area out of the way so not too worried about the aesthetic there. 

    Is it feasible to have the bin standing on stone flags and what kind of bin would be best? 

    Again thanks and apologies for being a bit clueless! 
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    Hello and welcome to the forum

    I have a couple of compost bins. One of them is tucked away on the far corner of my lawn. My second bin is on concrete. I put the bin on the concrete as  bit of an experiment. I have not had any compost out of it yet (I only started it August last year) but when I have investigated, the contents are breaking down as I would expect, there are worms and other guests present too.  When i started this bin off, i put a small layer of used compost in the bottom to try and get some micro organisms in there to get it going.

    The type of bin I have are black plastic square ones.

    I hope that this has helped 😁
  • Vikings90Vikings90 Posts: 4
    PurpleRose said:
    Hello and welcome to the forum

    I have a couple of compost bins. One of them is tucked away on the far corner of my lawn. My second bin is on concrete. I put the bin on the concrete as  bit of an experiment. I have not had any compost out of it yet (I only started it August last year) but when I have investigated, the contents are breaking down as I would expect, there are worms and other guests present too.  When i started this bin off, i put a small layer of used compost in the bottom to try and get some micro organisms in there to get it going.

    The type of bin I have are black plastic square ones.

    I hope that this has helped 😁
    That sounds promising I know it’ll take a while but I feel like it’s better than just binning the food scraps! Thank you for the reply :) 
  • PurpleRosePurpleRose Posts: 538
    I agree, saves going into landfill and homemade compost is so good for your garden. 

    You will need to balance out your scraps with what are called browns. This is shredded brown card/newspaper and I also use old rabbit bedding which is kindly donated by a friend. If you dont add these, you will end up with a slimy smelly pile.  There are some really good posts on the forum about composting. Just search for them in the search bar at the top of the main page. Might help you out a bit.

    Good luck
  • jonathan.colejonathan.cole Posts: 221
    If you are composting primarily food scraps outside with very little garden waste (clippings etc) it will be very attractive to rats. Make sure you can seal the bins or prevent access or look at bokaski indoor sealed composting.


  • Vikings90Vikings90 Posts: 4
    jonathan.cole said:
    If you are composting primarily food scraps outside with very little garden waste (clippings etc) it will be very attractive to rats. Make sure you can seal the bins or prevent access or look at bokaski indoor sealed composting.


    Thanks Jonathan this is why I’m so confused about what to do for the best. The concern I have with Bokashi is I have nowhere to bury the waste. 

    I had a look last night about the balancing of greens and browns and think I should be able to get it ok with eggshells/some cardboards/wood ashes from our firepit and I’ll ask my dad to bring us his hedge clipping perhaps! 
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