Composting Got Started

I have four gray plastic pots that my sister gave me. See the half filled pot, I couldn't find the time and motivation to start using them and they had been sitting here for a month already. My original plan is to make a few cuttings of this beautiful plant in our garden with small white flowers. I love the little flowers and tall slender branches very ideal for beautifying an area in our garden. That's my plan.

The cuttings are taking time to grow roots some failed and the remaining are showing some signs of life already. Take a look at this photo of those cuttings. I put them in a PET water bottle with narrow neck so mosquitoes will not be able to get in and lay eggs.

While waiting for the cuttings to be stable and grow more roots I decided to prepare the soil. We don't have a rich garden soil but loose sandy one. Made me think of alternatives but composting seems to be the most practical and convenient. The quarantine is getting stricter here we can't go out easily and I guess that's the reason why the garbage collectors are not showing up to collect lately. What better way to dispose some of the wastes than to compost right? .My issue is I have no idea how to do it the right way.

Composting may sound simple but done the wrong way will invite pests, produce foul odor and may lack necessary materials to fertilise your plants. Good thing I made a quick YouTube search and found some tips to start. I need the following :

1.) browns

2.) greens

3.) paper

4.) water

The browns are the dried things like leaves, twigs and in my case these rambutan fruits and yellowish drying leaves.


For the greens it will be kitchen scraps like fruit peels and left over vegetables. Remember cooked left over food is not to be used because it may invite maggots and produce foul smell.

Here I have eggplant the scraps of which I used in my compost. I also gathered some grass that I weeded out today that are growing on pots in our garden

I learned that paper will absorb excess water and prevent the odor. I looked around the house for paper and found an old paperback pocket book, soap and toothpaste boxes. I shredded them using my fingers LOL. I got small containers so I had to tear everything into small pieces.

You may or may not use soil to start a compost but I did use soil here.

Mix everything together. The ideal ratio is you put more browns and paper than the greens. Then sprinkle with water make sure the containers have drainage or holes at the bottom

Cover the containers. It is ideal if you put them where there is heat or sun exposure so the compost will progress. It will take 2 months or so before you can use the compost.

tip: Mix it up every three days or so. It should smell good, like rain or garden soil. If not, that means water is building up so add more browns (like paper or cardboard).
Even when you sweep, that dust is considered a brown so you can add that too! @proto26

Now that mine is ongoing I need not worry about purchasing my fertiliser. I was able to lessen the wastes here that is accumulating each day and in the process will produce something useful. Hope you like my post and if you have some tips and suggestions or questions let me know in the comments.

Steem on.