Composting is important in so many ways in your garden. Firstly, it saves the environment from the overuse of chemical fertilizers. Secondly, it reuses food waste and thirdly it rejuvenates soil to an extent that you might never have to buy commercial soil again for your garden. It also strengthens your crops naturally as adding neem and cinnamon to your compost makes your crops better equipped to fight pests. Now composting is done in many ways. Some just dig a hole in the ground if they have a large space and fill that area with all the food waste and layer with dry leaves and level it there. That decomposes slowly and you will have the compost once a season. Other ways are to layer your dry matter with the food waste and sprinkle some enzymes on it to aid in faster decomposition. even in this people do it in different ways. I follow Mr R.K Bishnoi method loosely and have had a lot of compost for my garden. I however have made mistakes and have learnt now how to hasten the process. So what do we need for the whole process? You need large plastic drums with tight lids and one really large one with loads of holes around it for good aeration. Cylindrical drums are great because you can roll them around for faster mixing. Anyway, this is how I do it. I managed to get 3 large plastic bleach drums which were used for pool cleaning. I washed them and left them in the sun for 10 days and repeated the process. This was to ensure that all chlorine was removed. I then made holes at the bottom of one and placed it into the other. That formed the containers for my first stage. Every time I added food waste into it I sprinkled some bio enzyme or bokashi bran or lactobacillus on it. I then closed the lid tightly. After about 10 days, I would dump this food waste which had now decomposed into the large drum with holes. I would then add 3 parts more of dry or own matter to it. Brown matter is dry leaves, dried grass cuttings, brown paper which is not treated and to a small extent even old soil. Now the key thing here is that this mixture has to be turned regularly. As the first stage gets completed you continue to add the green decomposed food waste to the brown matter and turn regularly. I also add a few handfuls of vermicompost to this to hasten the process. I have even added expired B-complex pills crushed and expired probiotic pills to this. Bokashi Bran is available commercially but you can make it yourself as well. I am attaching a link to Mr Bishnoi’s manual which details the whole process. Also, remember to avoid non veg like meat scraps and milk products as these attract pests like cockroaches and rats. Try to stick to vegetable and fruit scraps and you can add old rice as well if that does not have salt. You must also make sure that you chop up your vegetable and fruit scraps to help in faster decomposition.
On one last note, during the first stage you will get a stinky liquid in your lower container, make sure you save that. That is brown gold or compost tea. It is very rich in nutrients and has to be diluted 1:10 with water and used in the garden.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/4/my-drive This is the link to Mr Bishnoi’s manual. It is self explanatory and very concise. Happy composting!
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