Garden compost or urban vermicompost?
It can reduce waste, return nature to nature and create a free fertilizer: in a city or the countryside, anyone can compost!
Doing a compost with or without a garden
· For those who have a garden, compost can be done as a simple stack or in a container. For the former, large spaces are ideal as it is put directly on the floor (ideally in a shaded area away from wind). For the latter, you can buy a container or make it yourself.
· For those living in a city without a garden, when placed inside (such as under the sink) or on a balcony, the vermicompost allows to compost kitchen waste thanks to worms. Be careful, it must be away from the sun and wide temperature differences. Usually made up of several levels, you can feed it easily but there are also online tutorials to make it yourself.
What to put and not to put in a compost?
To function well, a garden compost and a vermicompost require a balanced input between humid waste (peels, garden herbs...) and dry (dead leaves, crushed wood, cardboard...). The more varied they are - and crushed! - the better! They can come from the kitchen, the house or the garden with a few differences between types of compost.
Common aspects between external compost vermicompost
Both composts can have the following waste:
· From the kitchen: peels and stems, old fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice and other cereal leftovers, ground and filter coffee, tea bags, ground egg shells and nuts. Remember to chop thins that are too chunky or hard (for instance, apple cores or watermelon skin).
· But also: disposable kitchen towels, uncolored disposable towels, brown cardboard, eggs boxes cut in pieces.
Avoid or proscribe in both cases:
· Animal origin food (meat, fish, cheese crust), any kind of fat and bread.
· Magazines, colored cardboard, clay cat litter, glass, metal, plastic bags (even compostable ones), wood charcoal ashes, vacuum cleaner dust, textiles...
Their differences
· Only outdoor compost can have garden waste: dead leaves, straw, moaned lawn, dried herbs, dead flowers, sawdust, weeds, hedge trimmings and crushed hard stems, shavings... However, avoid or proscribe things that are too large, hard, diseased plants and weeds with grains, sand...
· Vermicompost does not like some specific kitchen waste which can go in outdoor composts such as: citrus, garlic, onion, shallot, leek, artichoke, asparagus, rhubarb, pomegranate.