Newly formed environmental group, Leura Eco Group (LEG) held a Q&A session about composting with guest speaker and Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) officer, Blake Hight, on December 12.
The gathering included a composting demonstration held at the Leura Uniting Church grounds.
LEG was initiated by Rev Myung Hwa, the Minister of Leura Uniting Church. LEG member, Ross Neville prepared and distributed a handout on composting at the meeting. Fellow members, Peggy Goldsmith and Bev Plaizier brought some vegetable plants and succulents in little pots to give away.
Compost is organic material that breaks down and results in a nutrient rich soil. Learning composting and worm farming are complementary skills that help those who want to produce their own home-grown vegetables and at the same time deal broadly with food security. Furthermore, by composting at home, we can reduce landfills significantly.
Compost makes a great potting mix, fertiliser or lawn top dressing. A household generates a lot of kitchen food scraps, tea bags, coffee grinds, egg shells and accumulate newspapers, egg cartons, tissues, lawn clippings, garden pruning, dust, lint and hair. All these are suitable composting material.
A common mistake beginning composters make is not getting the right balance of brown and green plant matter to put in the compost. Browns are dry leaves, straw, shredded paper or saw dust. Greens are fresh garden waste, untreated grass clippings, and food scraps like fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds and tea bags.
The rule of thumb is three to one, a ratio of three parts brown to one part green. If your compost pile looks too wet, add more brown or, aerate more often. If it's too brown or dry, add more green, and sprinkle water to make it slightly moist. Give the compost pile oxygen (aerate it) by turning it once a week with a garden fork or a compost stirrer. Avoid throwing in meat, dairy, oil, dog and cat faeces in your compost.
Some LEG members who are composting starters recently completed BMCC's free waste and recycling workshops on zoom to build up their composting and worm farming experience. LEG plans to have a worm farming information exchange next and start a buddy system partnership of experienced and non-experienced members.
LEG started networking with like-minded groups such as Gundungurra man, David King who will be running Caring for Country workshops in Katoomba next year. LEG also received information from Greater Sydney Landcare and Greater Sydney Local Land Services about an interactive Landcare and Bushcare Gathering they organised for a diverse community to think big together. The first gathering of its kind will be held on 20 February 20, 2022 from 11.30am to 5.30pm at the Connection Event Space at 30 Shoreline Drive, Rhodes.