Compost Workshop Sept 6 2025
On a cold, wet Saturday afternoon in early September (officially spring, hah!), Friends of the Farm was delighted to host 25 hardy enthusiasts to learn how to compost effectively with Compost Collective.
Hari and Lisa provided a hands-on demonstration of how to build compost effectively, layer by layer, like a sandwich. Numerous tips and stories enlivened the chat, along with helpful instruction leaflets to remind us of what to do.
It’s all about the worms! As Hari tells school classes, (much to their delight!) they chew, chew, chew, then they poo, poo, poo, then they wee, wee, wee, and that turns garden waste into rich, crumbly, nutrient-rich humus that is a healthy food for your garden.
When composting, layering is the trick: layers of brown (containing carbon) such as paper, dry leaves, dried mown grass, sticks, cardboard, and green (containing nitrogen) such as fresh leaves, food waste and coffee grounds provide a tasty menu for worms.
Tips included shredding the newspaper into strips or crumpling it for best results and keeping the heap moist but not wet. If the worms are creeping out, it’s too damp. Grass clippings should be a maximum of 6-8 cm layer, as they will become slimy if thicker. To reduce the risk of spreading weeds, put plants such as kikuyu in a black plastic bag and leave them aside for two months to kill them before adding to the compost heap.
Long-time gardener Jennie commented, ‘I’ve been composting for years, but I still learned a lot from today’s event’.
Hari then demonstrated how a Bokashi bin works, using a two-bucket system for kitchen waste. Bokashi pickles your food waste. This fermentation decomposes food waste quickly, preventing slow decay and bad odour. This system is an easy way to manage waste for people with a small garden or patio where a compost bin might not fit. You need two buckets, one with holes in the bottom, to drop in your kitchen waste. Sprinkle the Bokashi activator over the mixture, put the lid on tightly, and it’s ready in two to three days. The liquid has many uses, including as a drain cleaner or diluted for use in the garden. The solid material left can be dug into the garden or added to your compost bin.
After the demo, we trooped inside for a warming cuppa and the legendary Friends of the Farm home baking, and chatted about our own gardening and composting experiences. Everyone agreed they had learned heaps and were keen to get stuck in at home, once the weather improved! ‘I’ll be using many of today’s helpful tips at home in my garden,’ said one participant. ‘It was really interesting and well worth attending,’ said another.
All the workshop participants are eligible for a 50% discount on a traditional compost bin, Bokashi, or worm farm system, so that was a bonus for those starting on their composting journey. You can download the instruction leaflets and more information at http://compostcollective.org.nz
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