It all began when me & wife visited Lavannya's home 2+ years ago, Aug 2014. Spotted a Kambha in her backyard and asked her what it was. After an introduction to Kambha & seeing the impact of composting at her organic-jungle or rooftop garden we decided to go for composting at home.
I shared the idea with Malhar and we both decided try composting at our homes. Thanks to Malhar who gifted 3T Kambha from DailyDump & our experimentation began. Whenever one tries to introduce something new, it is more often met with resistance & the same thing happened at home. Parents didn't accept the experimentation easily, it took almost 3 months for them to come out of regular process.
During the rainy spells of Oct & Nov in Bangalore, the maggots used to crawl outside the Kambha and wander all over our backyard. When it occurred the first time, during a weekday, my dad was furious that they were all over the place & they didn't know what needed to be done. After returning home that evening, cleaned up the place & did some reading on how to tackle them.
The maggots play an active & important role in composting process. They munch on all the veggies / fruits. The video shows how they devour the food waste.
After 3-4 months of composting, our first compost was ready for use in the garden. It was mixed in some of the pots and the end results were amazing. The plants responded very well & the harvest of tomatoes, beans, spinach was good.
This June, we spotted a runner in our garden and couldn't identify until the flowers began fruiting. We realised that the runner was actually Musk Melon plant. Thanks to composting, all the veggies and fruit waste that goes into kambha, composting process and eventually into the soil led to the germination of the musk melon seed into plants in the garden.
Composting has some pleasant surprises too.
In the past 26 months, none of the kitchen waste has left our home and has been recycled. It isn't tough process, but requires discipline and 10 mins of your time everyday. Make this part of your routine and it shall become an habit, that makes significant difference to Earth.
All the learning happened due to recycling of the kitchen waste from our home. So, recycle & help reduce the wet waste that leaves your home. If each one of does our bit then the burden on city's ecosystem would reduce significantly.
There are plenty of online resources available for one to learn the art of composting. DailyDump has good resources where one can learn the basics. Don't wait, start today and begin composting at your home.
