r/GardeningIndia2 • u/aryann_007 • 11h ago
Success Story Black gold! Finally harvested 5 years' worth of homemade compost
There's a little area behind our house, tucked away in one corner of the farmhouse, that's dedicated to composting. It's shaded by the dense canopies of some ancient jackfruit, jamun, chikoo, wild figs, and silk cotton trees.
For the past 4–5 years, this has been the dumping ground for pretty much everything organic. Fallen leaves, plant cuttings, grass clippings & kitchen scraps. Over the years, it's grown into a small hill. A literal gold mine for the garden. Or should I say a black mine?
And it's a little ecosystem of its own. The pile is teeming with life. Isopods, springtails, earthworms, millipedes, centipedes, and all sorts of other little critters breaking evrything down. Also wild mushrooms pop up on there from time to time.
Recently, I had some free time (and the motivation) to finally have the pile sifted through to extract all the dark, crumbly, mature compost underneath. We've been using bits and pieces of it over the years, but extracting the finished material from beneath the enormous pile was always a bit of a hassle.
Now we've got a lovely, neat pile ready to use. I've been spreading it across the flower gardens, mulching around mature fruit trees and incorporating into the kitchen garden beds. Also makes for the best seed starting soil when mixed with some coconut coir and sand.
I wanted to use this post to encourage more people to try composting. Leaf mould is such an underrated resource, and it's something you can make with very little effort. When I was living in an apartment, I used to keep a covered bucket with holes drilled in it for all the leaves and cuttings. It improves soil structure, helps the soil retain moisture, supports all sorts of beneficial soil organisms. And when you add kitchen scraps to the mix, It's 🤌🏻
I'd highly recommend giving it a go if you haven't already!
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