Have you ever created a composting pile before? If you have not, read on. I want to share my experience with you.
This term, I worked with Ms Gauri from Ecosami to create a mini composting pile at my school. There were two things I did to prepare myself for my initial foray into sustainability. Firstly, I visited Ground-Up Initiative to gain first-hand insights of how the staff there managed their composting process. Additionally, I borrowed books from the National Livrary Board to beef up my knowledge on composting. It took me about two weeks to finalise the preparations for our pilot composting project at school. When I first did composting, it was nerve-racking for me because I did not know how to alternate leftover vegetables with cocopleat. I sought guidance from Ms Gauri and learnt the ropes from her. I will highly recommend you to create a composting pile next year because you can hone your patience and resilience.
I hope my experience has piqued your curiosity. Do consider signing up for this meaningful project next year.
A long time ago, I read about composting, and in most cases, it requires worms. You either wait for them to come from nature or buy a worm "family" (around 500 worms in a box).
If you find these kinds of trays, you can build a vermicomposting bin in two steps. Put your worm family in the blue tray and cover it with a tray with holes. When the worms finish their work on the first floor, they'll migrate to the second through the holes, and so on.
If you compost in this way, you will have access to ready-to-use compost while the worms continue their work.
Hope you'll hit the success
interesting process! thanks for letting me know
Composting in a heap is over rated.
It is usually easier and more effective to simply dig food scraps directly into the soil.
Bury them about 200mm (8 inches) down and the worms will flock to them and process them within a few weeks.
will keep this in mind when I give feedback to the school leaders a few weeks from now
Consider too this is not for pure efficiency its a learning experience for the kids at the end of the day! A heap seems easier to show-and-tell for them
Interesting! Direct burial works fast for sure, but heap gives you usable compost you can measure. Did you compare soil health results between both methods?
Love this! The nerve-racking part of alternating vegetables with cocopeat is real - it's like learning UTXO management, you have to get the layers right or it doesn't compost properly š
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Two weeks prep shows real commitment. Ms Gauri and Ecosami sound like great mentors. Did you notice your school's food waste reduce after starting the pile? Curious how you measured the impact.
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Patience and resilience is exactly what composting teaches - similar to running a Bitcoin node! Hope more students sign up next year.
Patience is everything. Cool that you had a mentor to help.