I found my compost bin some weeks back! It’s a container for popcorn sold during Christmas, someone didn’t want it, left it by the staircase and I came along. The moment I saw it, I thought “COMPOST BIN!”. I was thrilled that I found something that I could recycle and my mom gave me weird looks when I hugged the piece of trash home.
Ever since I started reading garderning blogs, I noticed that composting is a very big thing that gets mentioned everywhere. I would like to do something about my kitchen scraps too, instead of dumping them into landfills. Been surfing up on composting and even though I have only 7 containers of plants to date, I would still like to try my hand on composting. I can’t have a compost heap since I don’t have a garden at all, but I can try starting my very own apartment composting bin.
I’ve been feeding my compost bin:
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dried leaves
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coffee grounds
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tea leaves
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a variety of kitchen scraps such as fruit peels, vegetable ends, etc
But about a week or two later, I saw maggots crawling happily in the heap. Darn. Darn. Darn.
And that’s how my first attempt at composting went.
MM, a member of the Green Culture Singapore forum, went to my rescue when he answered my questions posted on the forum asking about what went wrong. Here’s what I learnt from my first composting attempt (cos all I thought was that I just needed to add my greens & browns):
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My compost heap is too wet.
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Grass clippings decompose quickly and help to get the process started. So I made a mental note to add some next time.
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I need to add some high nitrogen matter (activators) to kickstart the process
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I need to add as well some soil or compost for the bacteria that is naturally occuring in the soil.
Points all noted for my second attempt at composting.
I’ll be back, hasta la vista baby.
Balcony Greens 
6 comments
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February 25, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Patrick
It doesn’t sound to me like you were really doing anything wrong.
It’s normal to have a lot of insects in compost, so if you find this a problem maybe it’s not a good idea for you to make your own compost.
You were adding the right things to your compost, and it’s not necessary to add anything else. If you do add something containing nitrogen (including grass clippings) it might make your compost go a little faster, but it’s not necessary.
You can add any plant based waste to your compost, including small amounts of paper. The only exception to this are very woody or hard things that might take too long to decompose or potatoes that might keep growing. If you make a mistake and add potatoes or something that doesn’t decompose, you can always remove it later.
You should never add any meat, bones or any other animal product because this can attract animals. The only exception to this is egg shells, which are fine. You should also avoid adding seeds from something that might later become a weed in your garden, but with only your balcony I guess this isn’t an issue. You should also avoid adding any chemicals to your compost, including purchased fresh cut flowers because these will contain a lot of pesticides.
The necessary bacteria will also come by itself, and it’s not necessary to add any. Because when you start there won’t be any of this bacteria, it will take a month or two before anything happens, but this is not a problem. One of the best ways to add this bacteria is with a little compost from your previous batch, but of course when you first start this isn’t possible.
Your composting container must have some holes in the bottom so water can drain freely, but as long as you have this it can never really be too wet. If your balcony doesn’t have it’s own drain, this could be a problem because rotten kitchen waste water could drip on to your neighbors below! It also must have good air circulation, and you can’t use a container that is completely closed. If you don’t have enough air circulation or drain holes, the compost will start smelling bad and stop decomposing until you fix the problem, but you can never ruin a batch of compost this way. In fact it’s very hard to ruin a batch of compost.
While it is possible to make your own composting container, I suggest you consider buying one. Specially made composting containers usually don’t have any bottom so water can easily drain and are designed so it can have a lid but still ensure air can circulate.
If, for example, you get a 200 liter container and you are one person, it will probably last more than a year before you need to empty it. This is because you will add kitchen scraps, but while you do it will decompose making more space.
I made a post on this almost two years ago: http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=26
February 27, 2008 at 12:45 am
Gardenista
I do my composting using worms in a rubbermaid (flexible plastic) box-like container in which we drilled many holes and covered them with a plastic mesh. The fluid that drains out the bottom (compost tea) is brown and very good for fertilizing plants. The air circulation helps prevent it from just rotting and stinking. Wooden containers soak up the fluid, so they can break down, look bad, or become stinky themselves and are hard to clean.
Here’s a picture of my homemade composter from a while ago:
http://zoneonegarden.blogspot.com/2006/05/vermicomposters-alive.html
February 27, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Teresa
Hi Patrick! Thanks for the great advice and for leaving the link to your very useful post. I went thru your other post on Composting & Mulching as well. http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=25
I’m fine with maggots and flies actually. I just thought that having them meant that I did something wrong and have to start all over again. But your posts reassures that nothing much can really go wrong with composting and you just have to correct the problem.
Darn, shouldn’t have thrown that batch away. I’ll start another batch real soon. Will get some holes into this container for ventilation. Thanks alot for the advice and reassurance. It helps alot!
February 27, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Teresa
Hi Gardenista! Your DIY compost bin with 2 plastic containers idea is such a good one. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading your post on how you did vermicomposting. Thanks for sharing!
August 26, 2008 at 5:19 am
Anonymous
hi. Just found you cool blog.
About composting, I will not use coffee grind. Why? Well after a home made experiment I found that if you add coffee to the compost the process is a lot slower than if you don’t add it (really, it depends on how much coffee you add). Reason: Well, apparently the aromatic chemicals that coffee has are detrimental for the bacterial populations. So, if there is no coffee there are a lot more happy bacteria.
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