Composting and Worm Farming
Recover your resources! Half of what goes into your garbage bin can be composted or wormfarmed. Recycling your food and garden scraps on site not only saves energy (less trucks to have to pick up the material), but also provides a natural soil conditioner for you or your neighbour's garden. See more on Composting, Wormfarming, Bokshi composting and other ways to reuse our valuable resources below!
Leichhardt is Making Compost - it's Easy!
Leichhardt Council has produced a DVD to show you how easy it is to make compost.
Be part of the solution and start composting today, here's how.
How can I get a Compost bin, Wormfarm or Bokashi Bucket?
Compost bins, wormfarms, Bokashi Buckets and Bokashi mix can be bought and collected at Council’s Citizen Service Centre or you can download an Order Form here 
OrderFormCompostingwormfarmingBokashibucket (40.44kB) and forward it with payment by cheque to the Citizen Service Centre and your Compost Bin, Wormfarm or Bokashi Bucket will be delivered.
Compost bins
$ 60.00
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Wormfarms
$69.00
(does not include worms)
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Bokashi Bucket $72.00
Bokashi Mix $ 8.00
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Approximate Dimensions
900mm diameter at base,
740mm high, 210 litres
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Approximate Dimensions
575mm length, 390 mm width,
640 mm height, 63 litres
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Approximate Dimensions
410mm high, 310mm wide
300mm deep
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Composting
What can I compost?
In general, anything that was once a plant or animal can be composted (see below for some specific materials). Animal products (e.g meat) will need to be composted in a well managed hot heap, and dog and cat manures are best buried in the garden away from food and native plants as they can be a source of parasites (see further information under Wormfarming for Pets).
You can compost:
Rich materials
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Tea leaves/bags and coffee grounds
Poor materials
Steps to make compost
- Choose a site on soil with a slight slope for drainage to position your bin.
- Choose a sunny site in winter, more shaded in summer
- Begin your compost heap with a 10-15 cm layer of course materials (e.g woody twigs, prunings) for aeration and drainage
- Alternate rich and poor layers of materials
- Keep layers thin (5-8 cm each)
- Moisten dry layers as they are added (old tea or coffee liquid is good and saves water)
- Sprinkle in a spadeful of soil each week or so to add micro-organisms that recycle the leftovers
- Turn the compost every 2 to 3 weeks to add air so it doesn't smell. You can place garden stakes or pipes through the heap to allow air in.
- Keep the compost moist, not wet
- Sprinkle a layer of soil or finished compost layered on top of food scraps to make richer compost and help minimise odours.
How to use compost
- Use sifted compost as potting mix and seed raising mix (woody leftovers can be used for mulch or composted again).
- Add a 2-5 cm layer around the drip line of trees
- Apply twice a year to Australian natives
- Spread thinly once or twice a year as a top dressing for lawns
See how to make a live compost heap using the "Berkely" method!
Kirsten from Milkwood Permaculture uses the "Berkely" method to make a fast Compost heap. Thanks Kirsten!
Wormfarming
What can I put in the wormfarm?
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Tea leaves/bags and coffee grounds
- Small amounts of soiled paper and cardboard (eg. shredded egg cartons)
Worms least favourite food
- citrus e.g. oranges, lemons;
(Use in small amounts)
- meat, fish, fat, oil - (avoid)
Steps to wormfarming
- Purchase red or tiger worms through local nurseries or look under 'worms' in the telephone directory
- Start with about 1,000 - 2,000 worms.
Bed the worms in the wormfarm in a mixture of shredded newspaper, leaves and finished moist compost or soil (or fibre material supplied with the worm farm) with a 10-15cm deep layer.
- Add the worms to the surface of the bedding and cover the bin with a natural material (eg. moist newspaper or hessian bag)
- Leave them for a few days to get used to their new home
- Add food scraps to the top of the bedding - start slowly (worms find smaller pieces of scraps easier to digest - they have no teeth!)
- Add more scraps when the worms have started eating these
- Store the bin away from temperature extremes
Harvesting the worm castings
- Empty the worms and bedding onto a surface and scrape the castings from the outside as the worms mound towards the centre
- Use the ball of worms for a new bedding OR
- Move all of the castings to one side of the bin: add fresh bedding to the empty side. Many of the worms will migrate to the fresh bedding in a few days.
How to use worm castings /liquid
- Plant food - add a 3-6cm layer around plants and drip line of trees and cover with mulch
- As a potting mix - add 10-20% castings to a poor potting mix.
- The liquid can be diluted and used on your pot plants
Wormfarming for Pets!
How to use a worm farm for pets and other environmental pet care tips Environment Pet Care (155.29kB)
Bokashi Bucket
What can I put in the Bokashi Bucket?
A Bokashi Bucket may reduce the need for an outside compost pile and can be stored neatly under your kitchen sink. The Bokashi Bucket holds approximately 19 litres of food waste, which is perfect for any size household.
- fruit and vegetable scraps
- prepared foods
- cooked and uncooked meats and fish
- cheese
- eggs
- bread
- coffee grinds
- tea bags
- wilted flowers
- tissues
Steps to using a Bokashi Bucket
- Place your kitchen waste into the bucket, then sprinkle a handful of EM Bokashi mix over the waste.
- Repeat this layering process until the Bokashi Bucket is full.
- Drain off liquid (Bokashi juice) as necessary
- Once the bucket is full to capacity, the waste can be buried. If you have two Bokashi Buckets, begin the process again in your second bucket.
Bokashi compost will look different to other compost that has decayed. As the food waste does not breakdown or decompose while it is in the bucket, much of its original physical property will remain and it will have a pickled appearance. Breakdown of waste will occur after it has been transferred to the soil.
Burying Bokashi Compost
Burying Bokashi compost in the garden will supply the plants with a nourishing food source and condition your soil with enriching microbes.
- Dig a hole, add your fermented Bokashi compost, mix with some soil and cover.
- If you are low on garden space, you can create a Bokashi compost heap by burying a large bottomless bucket with lid
- You can use your Bokashi compost in planter boxes, tubs or pots by placing it directly into the container for further fermentation.
Bokashi Juice
As the kitchen waste starts to ferment, Bokashi Juice will form in the bottom of the bucket. This should be drained off as it builds up.
- Bokashi Juice can be diluted with water and makes a terrific fertiliser for garden or pot plants
- It can be poured down drains and it is safe to use in septic tanks.
When used in drains it will help to clean up our water ways by competing with harmful bacteria.
Please, please make sure you don't unscrew the tap more than 3/4 of a turn. More than this will loosen the central mechanism of the tap itself and cause issues.
Helpful Tips on using your Bokashi Bucket
You can never add too much EM Bokashi Mix; better too much than too little to ensure complete fermentation and good smelling compost.
Only add fresh food waste to the Bokashi Bucket, never rotten or mouldy wastes.
- Break or chop large waste into smaller pieces
- Remember, the less air that comes in contact with the compost the better so compact the waste by pressing it down to remove air. A plastic bag can be used for this.
- Always close the lid tightly and drain the Bokashi Juice that accumulates at the bottom frequently.
- Do not add water, excessive amounts of fluids or place the bucket in the sun.
- Wash the bucket after each use.
- The Bokashi Bucket has been designed to be used with EM Bokashi Mix. Use with other products may result in putrification rather than fermentation of food wastes.
- This is a new approach to composting. Don't be afraid to experiment with it until you get a feel for how this process can work for you.
For more information on Bokashi Bucket composting, go to www.bokashi.com.au
No Dig Garden
No Dig Garden means you don't have to do the hard work, nature will do the work for you. Click on the following for details.
No Dig Garden (46.69kB)
Information brochures on composting & wormfarming
Easy Guide to Composting (856.05kB)
easy Guide to Wormfarming (918.91kB)
Community Composting
Community compostin
g is an idea that is starting to capture the public imagination, however before community groups and councils rush in, a little systems thinking won’t go astray. As Bill Mollison suggests, it’s a matter of “protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action”.
Observations from a community composting trial in Peace Park located in the City of Sydney include:
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'Placing excess amounts of compost on gardens risks it being washed into stormwater drains
as nutrient-rich pollution. The best locations for community composting systems may be at community gardens, where the compost produced would provide a needed input for the gardens and ensure the bins
were regularly emptied'.
Click the download for more information on the community's composting trial in Peace Park Community Composting (14.39kB)
Source: Pacific Edge - http://pacific-edge.info/comm_composting/