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Health For Mzansi

How to make your own compost with kitchen scraps

by Vateka Halile
20th June 2022
in Grow It
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 30% of what we throw away, and could be composted instead. Babalwa Mpayipheli uses the technique of bokashi composting. Photo: Supplird/Health For Mzansi

Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 30% of what we throw away, and could be composted instead. Babalwa Mpayipheli uses the technique of bokashi composting. Photo: Supplird/Health For Mzansi

Before you chuck your kitchen scraps away, consider using them to make your own compost and save some moola.

Babalwa Mpayipheli, a field worker at Abalimi bezekhaya, from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, believes that compost made from kitchen scraps is liquid gold for your garden.

She uses a technique known as “bokashi” composting which is a traditional composting practice that uses bacteria to break down food scraps and garden waste. She suggests you use your kitchen waste as compost in your garden. “We use compost piles of one metre in length and width for bi-gardens and community gardens.”

Steven Barnard and some of his Farmer Kidz in Tembisa on the East Rand of Gauteng Photo: Supplied/Health For Mzansi
Steven Barnard and some of his Farmer Kidz in Tembisa on the East Rand of Gauteng Photo: Supplied/Health For Mzansi

Here is what you need to make your own compost heap

Mpayipheli offers a bokashi composting guide for home gardening. She also notes that it may be used in confined spaces and prevents insects and odours.

How to do make it:

  • A bucket with a cover.
  • To start, sprinkle bokashi bran at the bottom of your bucket.
  • Like with a cake with layers, you begin with the bran, then add your kitchen waste, then the bran, and so on.

Start with all of your solid food waste, such as cabbage stems, eggshells, mushroom remnants, fruit and vegetable peels, and loose tea bags.

The bed of the compost pile may be composed of grass, wood ash, tree leaves, sawdust, cardboard, brown paper bags, toothpicks, old matchsticks, and ground bones.

Mpayipheli says that you may water it as much as possible so that it rots.

“Gardeners should continue doing this until the hole… reaches one metre in height so that it receives sufficient nitrogen. This contributes to the balance of your waste through composting.”

Keeping it natural

Meanwhile, Gengezi Buba-Yuze from Mandalay in Cape Town, says that the bokashi method does not work for her because of its unpleasant odour. In place of this, she decided to dig a hole in her garden.

“What I do is carry all of our kitchen scraps to the garden and cover it with topsoil.”

Gengezi Bubu-Yuze. Photo: Vateka Halile/Health For Mzansi

This has made her sandy garden more like the rich soil she is used to in the Eastern Cape. She adds that the presence of earthworms in her garden has made the soil fertile, which is beneficial for her garden.

“Earthworms are essential to the health of the soil because they bring nutrients and minerals from below to the surface through decomposed organic matter.”

Buba-Yuze says that her produce taste better since she began preparing her own compost. She says that even neighbours who purchase tomatoes, spinach, and spring onions from her, relish the organic nature of the produce.

Steven Barnard, found of Farmer Kidz and the Garden of Life, says vegetable and fruit peels are the most useful scraps.

 “To create a nutrient-rich fertiliser, I advise home food growers to use natural waste in their compost, such as grass clippings and leaves from their yard. They are very good for the soil.”

Other waste compost techniques

Barnard explains how you can prepare your kitchen for waste compost in eight steps:

  • Collect and sort your edible kitchen trash in a container, including vegetable peels, fruit peels, and tiny bits of discarded cooked food.
  • Now gather some dry organic materials, such as dried leaves, sawdust, and wood ash, in a small container.
  • Take a large container, clay pot, or bucket, then drill four to five holes at varying heights around the container to let air within.
  • Now, add a layer of dirt to the bottom of the container.
  • Add food waste in layers, alternating moist and dry waste (food scraps, vegetable, and fruit peels) (straw, sawdust, dried leaves).
  • Cover this container with a plastic sheet or a wooden board to help preserve heat and moisture.
  • Check the container every few days, and if you believe the heap is too dry, moisten it with water.
  • Wood ash and sawdust may also be added to the compost to speed up the decomposition process.

ALSO READ: Winter: An ideal time to plant root veggies, take stock

Tags: nutrientssoil
Vateka Halile

Vateka Halile

Vateka Halile grew up in rural areas of Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. She was raised in a traditional family setting and found writing to be a source of comfort and escape. Vateka participated in an online citizen journalism course through Food For Mzansi, and her passion for health and medicine-related stories was born. Her dedication to community work and love for social justice and solidarity spaces is evident in her quality time with the community when she isn't working.

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HIV and initiation: Supporting boys through cultural rites Security fails as gangs target Eastern Cape clinics Dr Makanya blends spiritual healing with art therapy Canola oil: A heart-healthy choice for your kitchen No more pain! Tackle the torment of toothaches How smoking causes harmful bacteria in your mouth Discover delicious, healthy dishes that will make your heart sing Rediscover the joy of creamy pap with chicken livers