Three Ways to Compost at Home–Without Building a Compost Pile
Kiss the Ground – via YouTube
Many of you may have tried composting at home, perhaps by creating a compost pile. A compost pile can require a lot of time and maintenance. Kiss the Ground’s Farmer Richie shares three easier ways to compost at home– without building a compost pile!
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Method #1: Dig and Bury
The first method is super easy– dig a hole and bury your food waste in that hole. The soil eats everything! The food waste will be eaten by the soil and the soil really can breaK down just about everything that we eat, including vegetables fruit, dairy and
meat. Warning: If you have rodents or small animals around your yard avoid burying too much meat or dairy because animals will be attracted to it. However, given time, soil can break down all of those things. Soil is the easiest and the most foundational system– it can handle almost anything.
Step-by-step:
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- Dig a small hole
- Toss in food scraps
- Cover the scraps with soil
Method #2: Worm Composting (Vermicomposting)
The second easy home composting method is called worm composting or vermicomposting. In this system we feed our leftover food scraps to worms–specifically to red wiggler worms who are excellent composters.  The red wiggler eats half of its body weight in food every day! As such it multiplies very quickly and it makes
excellent compost with beneficial microbes for our garden. Unfortunately, worms don’t eat everything that we eat (like the soil does), but they will speed up the process a bit and give you a rich “worm castings” compost which is a valuable garden supplement.Â
For worm composting, you will need a worm composting bin. These you can buy or you can build one yourself. Farmer Rishi shares a vertical migrating worm system –one with stacking trays where the worms move up as they eat your food scraps leaving behind rich compost.
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Method #3: Chickens
Chickens are a great way to turn your food scraps into compost because
(1) they don’t need a lot of space –you can even keep them in a small urban lot if your city allows it.
(2) They eat generally the same foods that we eat: grains, fruits and veggies and even meat.
Chickens transform our food scraps into a valuable resource — chicken manure– which can be used in the garden. Chickens also produce eggs , and we can even eat the chickens as part of the cycle of life.
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