OK so this is probably a little weird but I am going to write a paean of praise for my new compost bin. Yes, my compost bin. I don’t think I have gone completely crazy so here’s why.
You know we all have loads of kitchen waste, veg peeling etc that we put in the bin? Some of us get exercised enough about this shocking waste of good future garden compost that we keep little caddy bins in the kitchen and scrape our peel into it. I did. Then I stopped. Why? Because it stank. A few scrapings in the summer and it reeked. Get a small bin and you had to remember to take it out to the compost bin in the garden, it rains, you don’t, a backlog of smelly peelings builds up then the flies start so you chuck it in the main bin. Get a big bin and you don’t fill it fast enough and back come the flies, an interesting mould grows and you get reluctant to open the lid. Impasse.
Not any more for me. Now at this point I will tell you I am NOT sponsored on this post – why would anyone sponsor one of my posts? – so here it is straight. I got a bokashi bin from wigglywigglers.co.uk. Bokashi is bran impregnated with friendly bugs that basically pickle your waste. It doesn’t smell, except a quite pleasant brewing scent, while you are filling the container and when you chuck it in a regular compost bin it degrades really fast, and makes the main bin go with a bang too. More compost, more quickly. Winner! The bin is a plastic tub with an airtight lid – the bugs need low air to work well – so no flies either.
Why does this matter? Well I noticed that I just felt a great sense of well-being from not wasting stuff. I can even put cooked waste in this thing, though my new diet means there is very little of that! Even chicken bones will go in there and egg shells. My tiny garden is not going to know itself with this much good stuff heading its way. So I am a convert and a happy one.
Jeremiah Hope 