Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Compost Diary Part 2

Okay, so I've been diligently chucking my kitchen waste into my new compost bin and layering on the bokashi catalyst for about a week now. I'm supposed to wait until the bucket is full before I bury the contents, but I don't think I can wait any longer. Since I started this, my biggest worry has been, "Where the heck am I going to bury this stuff?" 

A week's worth of kitchen waste. 


As I've mentioned, I live in an apartment, so I haven't an inch of soil to my name. I can't just dig up the community playground/garden for my own purposes. I wrote to the owner of Biosense, relating my concerns, and she gave me tips on burying the compost in an indoor container. I had heard about this solution online, and it seemed like the only logical choice for me.



Compost and soil trifle...  

It doesn't smell so bad, but it's not so great either. I think my mixture is too moist and I detect a strong papaya smell. I did chuck in a quarter a papaya in there. Maybe papaya enzymes aren't so good for small compost bins? Anyway, I got home from work today and my mother, husband and son were complaining that the house smelt funny. I had to do something. Thankfully I had some potting soil on hand and this tall, thin Ikea bin. I started layering the soil and compost.

Can't see the compost anymore. 

I had just enough soil to layer about 4 inches of it on top of the compost. That should do the trick, i.e. prevent flies and smells. I hope this works and in 2 weeks time I'll have a bin full of wonderful, fertile soil :)


See? All gone! The bin is empty for now until I start composting again. I want to see what happens to my buried compost first. I still have some bokashi catalyst left.


I did drain off some compost tea. Mine had this icky white stuff floating on it and again a strong papaya smell. I flushed mine down the bathroom drain, which is supposed to be good for it :)

 Let you know what happens in 2 weeks folks!

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