The compost

Aaah, the compost! One of the many miracles of nature! First it's food and what you don't want to eat becomes stinky yuck, then you stir and you wait and out comes - earth to grow food on. How great is that!? ;o)

Well, I told you at the beginning of the year that we are looking into starting our own compost. Well, we have made some tiny steps since then.

First I thought I'd just try and make a tiny compost bin where everything can break down by itself like in a garden compost. I put the kitchen scraps in the bin and mixed it well with some soil.

I kept the bin upstairs in the attic which is well ventilated and it didn't really stink unless you took the top off (that I did a few times a week to stir the whole stuff).

I poked some holes through the bottom of the bin so that excess moisture could run out, but it wasn't really necessary.

I soon realised though that my plan was not gonna work. I think the bin was just not big enough to develop enough heat to break the stuff down.

I've been reading a lot about vermicomposting and how it is really ideal for small indoor composts, because the worms do all the work and therefore it doesn't stink and it works well in smaller containers, too. The problem is that the worms are really expensive if you buy them.

But last weekend, when we were back at my parent's place, the weather was really good and a group of people from their neighbourhood had started bringing out the fresh soil from their big shared compost onto a nearby field. We got ourselves a bucket and started digging up the little friends to take them home with us.

So now the bottom of our compost container ist filled with yummy compost earth and a small worm population that we will now try to feed well so that they will breed fast and soon be able to eat all of our kitchen scraps. (At the moment we have to be careful not to overfeed them).

I really hope this will turn out nicer than the first try and I must admit, I'm also quite in love with the cute little wormly-guys!

What do you think? Is it worth starting your own compost? Or would you rather wait until an easier solution presents itself? What do you do with your green waste?