How to Start Composting at Home

Food scraps, vegetable and fruit peels and any organic matter can be composted easily in your garden. All you need are a few pots. Here is Don's tried-and-tested method of composting.

1. Get 10 pots. Pots should be about 12 to 14 inches in size.

2. In each pot, place a piece of mosquito mesh at the bottom of the pot. Layer with pebbles on top of the mesh.

3. Add a good 2 inches of moist soil on top of this pebble layer.

Now you are ready to start composting.

4. Spread organic kitchen waste on the layer of soil and immediately top up with 2 inches of soil. This is done only once a day (this means you'll need to 'save' up your organic waste and do this at the end of the day).

5. Repeat the process the following day and so on, remembering to cover the organic waste with 2 inches of soil each time until the pot is full. When the first pot is full, repeat the process with the second pot, and continue until you reach the 10th pot. By the 10th pot, you would have been composting for a good 30 days at least.

6. Protect the full pots from the sun and rain. Yet keep the soil moist all the time.

7. At the end of 30 days, all the organic waste in your first pot would be composted and ready to be removed. You can use this rich compost for your plants and herbs. Give it away to your neighbours if you have too much of compost.

8. When you empty out the first pot, start the process all over again. Remember not to harm the fat earthworms that you will come across while you are emptying the the pot. Gently pick them up and drop them into the next pot and they will continue doing there work composting your organic waste.

Happy composting!