No need to throw away that accumulating household waste in your kitchen anymore. Ever thought of how much kitchen waste you generate every day? If you have, that’s a lot of waste to just dispose of without asking yourself, can it be of any use?
You’re not alone on this. According to some research, people living in the major cities generate almost 1 kg of household waste a day. Another thing to note is that this waste is composed of organic matter that can be used for composting to make fertilizer.
That much said you could use composting as the ideal way to dispose of that food waste in your kitchen. By doing so, you will be converting that smelly odor from the kitchen waste into a highly organic manure rich in nutrients, and you can grow vegetables or flowers with it.
As you know, every organic matter will finally decompose with time. With the composting method, it will speed up the decomposing process. Composting provides the best settings for bacteria as well as other decomposing microorganisms to thrive in, and the final produce from this process feels and looks like a garden soil that is so fertile.
A little knowledge of this composting process is that decomposing microorganisms includes fungi, bacteria as well as other organisms like bugs and worms. These organisms need four crucial elements for survival; nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and moisture.
So if you’re planning on making your own compost manure, all you need to do is mixing materials rich in nitrogen (such as livestock manure) and those highly rich in carbon (such as twigs and dry leaves). You can also add a handful of lawn fertilizer if there is no enough supply of materials rich in nitrogen. To make sure you have the ideal nitrogen-carbon ratio. The rain provides the moisture, but in case it is not enough, you will need to cover or water the compost pile to retain the dump.
You should be keen not to saturate the compost pile. For you to provide the required oxygen, you will need to keep on mixing and turning the compost pile. Faster decomposition goes hand in hand with frequent turnings.
Let’s take a look at how to generate fertilizer from that household waste in your kitchen.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
? Compost bin
? Kitchen waste
? Sawdust
? Garden waste
? Animal manure
? A garden fork
The steps include:
1. Gather all the household waste
By maybe using a chipper shredder, you should collect enough waste for the process. Every time you’re about to discompose that waste in your kitchen, you should ask yourself, are these food remnants I’m about to throw away be in the way of beneficial? Can I make a natural fertilizer from them? And if I can, why am I throwing away this waste?
By thinking this way, you will find yourself collecting and storing enough kitchen waste to use in making fertilizer. You should avoid things like grease, oils, fatty meats, and milk products since they will make your compost pile a wet mess, which can produce an annoying odor.
Peeling from vegetables and fruits are the things to look out. Also, you can use egg shells, over-ripened fruits, and nuts. Some wood ash will also aid in the composting process. To make things easier than said, you will need to choose a well-drained, level, and open place.
2. Collect Enough Garden Waste
To make your fertilizer richer in nutrients, you will need enough quantity of natural waste. For instance, if you do gardening work, you can just collect the clippings and all the leaves. You can collect garden waste with a lawn sweeper or a bagger. After collecting, before trimming the lawn, lay the garden waste and the leaves on your lawn.
So that when you’re doing your lawn, the waste will be sucked and mixed with all the grass cuttings. Empty all contents from the lawnmower into your compost bin. You can decide to be adding garden clipping as time goes by to have an ideal effect on the compost pile.
3. Including Other Materials
You have to include sawdust in your compost; it’s another organic matter that helps speed up the composting process. Where will I get the saw dust? You can get from sawing wood, but if you don’t saw, the other best alternative is to purchase bags of sawdust from a gardening store. If you rear livestock, you can add the excess manure to the compost. Also, you can just buy this manure in small amounts from any neighboring farm that keeps animals.
4. Now Create the Compost
You have to put all the gathered compost ingredients into a compost bin. Some of the things to consider with the bin, it should have a handle that you can use to turn as you rotate the compost for thorough mixing to incorporate oxygen into the mixture and placing it to some extent raised from the ground. You should spin the compost bin often. I would suggest two or three times per day. It helps in mixing all the materials for compost together, and by doing so, you will combine the best natural nutrients to produce a high-quality fertilizer. To allow excess moisture to escape as you spin the compost, make sure the bin has few holes on the side.
5. Spread
Keep on checking your compost for a soil-like mixture that is dark in color. This is where the garden fork comes into use. You have to use it to pick as you spread the compost on the garden fields you want to fertilize. Put in enough quantity and also allow the now-made fertilizer (compost) to seep in as it takes effect on the areas applied before you decide to add more.
Final words
Most of that organic waste in your home that you keep on disposing of can be made into a rich fertilizer that you can use in your flower garden or maybe other crops you may want to grow such as garlic. Also, you can consider making your garden more fertile by learning how to use worm casting as a method of fertilizing. Making fertilizer from compost nowadays has become so popular. The Reason is that composting process is very quick and straightforward. Also, you generate massive amounts of natural fertilizer in a short period.