Regular Ol' Compost

My best compost method and advice after doing it for a good bunch of years is don’t get technical!

I was so inspired after wwoofing in the states over a decade ago, before we had even arrived back on Aussie soil, I had my mum start one for me! Yeap, even back then I was passionate about this stuff.

Apart from the fact throwing stuff to landfill is bad (Landfill=Enemy), compost is a cheap fertilizer and good for everything and everyone!

The best food for your compost is kitchen waste, vege peelings, apple cores, banana peels,egg shells, tea bags even pencil shavings - don’t let any of it go, it is currency! Seriously your garden will thank you for it.

a colourful array of compost currency

So we like most other people keep this waste in a separate container so that it can be carried to the compost pile. But it doesn't just end at fruit and vegetable waste, add your house-hold paper waste too -  just common sense stuff (worms and bacteria don’t break down plastic, so tear out the windows of envelopes first). Even throw in your personal documents - you know the stuff that you would normally shred or burn - tear it up and throw into the bucket as well. Having chickens of course means the scraps are often shared - plus they get the non-organic stuff like bread and dairy waste.


Every couple of days when the bucket is overflowing, one of us will venture to the heap and peel back the cover (at the moment it is old bit of carpet). Old hessian bags are also good and they all breakdown after a while. It doesn't have to be covered, but the worms in the pile don’t like the heat or sun. I give it a quick turn over with my pitch fork, then throw the scraps on top, cover back up and job done.

After a few months I change piles, to the other side a fresh one. Then the old pile breaks down more, some seeds will germinate in the pile after each turning, this is good otherwise your garden will be full of germinating everything’s (can be good). Compost will look like soil very soon, about a month of this then throw into garden as a freshen up for the soil – this is the golden moment!