So it's been around 6 month since we started composting. I built my own wooden compost bin for our apartment with two adults who primarily eat meat and vegetables (minimal packaged products.) My first garden is doing well though next year I think it will be even better.
Here are a few things I have learned since we started the process.
- I wish we had started sooner. The best thing about our apartment is that we have a nice, fairly large deck. It remained unused for a good while. This year was the first that I started a garden and my compost bin. The compost bin sits nicely in the corner. It doesn't bother anyone or anything.
- We don't compost everything. We are two people living in a one bedroom, but we still generate a good amount of compostable trash. We've been on whole30 a few times and our worms just could not go through the amount of vegetables and fruit scraps we had. I have one or two containers of food scraps in the fridge at all times.
- I keep our food scraps in glass gars in the fridge. Yes, my husband has mistaken them for food once or twice.
- We have been on vacation at least two times since we started composting. Each time we were gone at least 10 days. The compost was fine. A little dryness, but nothing too alarming.
- It is currently the middle of summer where we are (New Jersey), our apartment faces the east side and therefore we get a lot of sun rise exposure. There has been NO smell coming from the compost at all.
- I noticed some gnats around the compost for a few days, but after I added more dry paper and dry cardboard, they went away.
- Early on in the process, I noticed some ants inside the bin and found the compost too dry. I sprinkle water on top to keep it moist at least once a week when I am home. I haven't seen the ant issue come back since then.
- I usually add new food scraps around every other week.
- No animals have come to bother it. We live on the second floor.
- While the worms do a fair amount of work to turn the food scraps and paper into compost, it does take time for them to turn a good amount of compost. I was hoping to have enough to put into my other plants before the summer is over, but that doesn't look to be the case.
- The worms appear to be healthy. Varied in size. Quick to move when I open the bin and it gets exposed to light.
- Before our blender broke down, I did use to blend the scraps together which included peels, egg shells, coffee , some paper so that they would be smaller. The worms appeared to have eaten this much faster. I went back to regular scraps and those get eaten though not as fast as when they are in smaller pieces. I probably will go back to doing this to accelerate the decomposition process.
- Some of my standard food scraps in the compost are: coffee grinds, banana peels, carrot peels, potato peels, salad greens, onion skins, eggshells, tomato stems.
- I have a box that I keep close to the door so that any mail that doesn't contain plastic or lots of color I immediately rip apart into scraps. Those can then easily be accessed for when I need paper for the compost bin. Despite my attempts to reduce junk mail, we still get them. I also include receipts in this box. I also used a Wholefoods paper to seal it at the top, but it eventually got eaten through so I switched to cardboard.
- I turn the compost by hand (with gloves) at least once a week or with a trowel.
- I thought I would be grossed out by the worms, but after a few months, I'm ok with them. They don't get out of bin.
- I do sometimes experiment and put in things in the compost to test if they are really compostable. So far I have confirmed that the paper our toilet paper is wrapped in do decompose. Some of the mailing envelopes don't decompose as fast. I found plastic film in it so I'm trying to figure out where it came from.
- Even with composting, we still do have regular trash, but we don't fill it as quickly as before.
- I have to figure out what to do with the bin once it starts getting cold. I still have a few months, but need to plan.
- I did take some compost ahead of time and sprinkled it on my tomato plants. I'm hoping it helps a little bit.
What the compost bin looks like a few months into the process. Note the receipts and paper slowly getting eaten.
I store the kitchens scraps in glass containers in the fridge. No major issues with smell in the fridge or by the compost.
My little urban garden. The compost sits under a table of plants. I originally built two bins, but have only used one so far. I also found some wooden scraps my neighbor were throwing away so I picked up for when I need to build that third bin whenever that may be. It gets sun, but because it's wood, doesn't overheat too much.
