If you have a small backyard that’s also a green space, then you’re one of the lucky few! In this article, I introduce 3 composting techniques that work well for small green spaces, so even if all you have is a few square metres, these are worth considering. I won’t talk about the compost bin since it is common.

1. Green cone (I recommend making your own)

The green cone is a organic waste digester that is passively powered by solar energy (i.e., the sun). So, instead of converting food waste into compost to be harvested for your garden, the end products are water and carbon dioxide. While there are companies that sell the green cones for hundreds of dollars (or pounds or Euros), you can make your own with a few tools. Check out Zach Ogilvie’s DIY post on the green cone.

A few things to keep in mind:

• What can go in: The green cone is a picky eater. Make sure you only add the following in: Fish, red meat, poultry, bones, bread, fruit (including peelings), dairy produce, cooked food scraps, crushed egg shells, small amounts of oil, tea bags, animal excrement

• What can’t go in: Metal, wood, plastic, glass, paper, straw, yard waste (grass cuttings, hedge clippings, plant trimmings), a lot of oil, chemicals (disinfectant, bleaches)

• Fill only the ‘basket’: Try not to fill above the fill line as that will affect the digesting process, which causes bad smells and leachates.

• Don’t put them close to water sources or dig the holes too deep: Since the green cone is a digestor, it’s best to keep away from water sources so as to prevent leachates from entering waterways or groundwater tables before being sufficiently filtered by the soil microbiome.

• Don’t use an airtight bucket for your DIY: The green cone requires a small amount of oxygen so that methane is not produced.

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2. Keyhole garden

The keyhole garden may need a little bit more space than the green cone. It’s a technique used in Lesotho, combining composting and gardening to grow healthy, big, chemical-free produce. Use logs, bricks, wood, or other recycled materials to build a garden wall in the shape of a circle, leaving one ‘keyhole’ open to access the compost bin. Use a breathable material like bamboo, chicken wire, or a big bottomless straw basket as the compost bin and place it at the ‘keyhole’.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Smells or insects: If the compost starts to draw insects or smell, stir the compost and sprinkle soil over the top, or add a layer of ‘browns’, such as leaves, yard waste, straw, or shredded cardboard or egg cartons to the top.

• Harvesting the compost: You may choose to leave the compost to feed the garden or harvest the compost to mix into your garden bed if the compost basket gets too full.

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3. Composting tumbler

The composting tumbler replaces the shoveling and compost-pile-turning with rotation by a lever. While different companies sell them at various price points (most of them are expensive, in my opinion), you can also make a tumbler yourself. Here are DIY instructions by Lee Wallender. And another by Mark from The Prudent Garden.

A few things to keep in mind:

• What can go in: It’s best to keep meats, bones, oil, and dairy products out of the tumbler as they tend to get smelly.

• Add a lot of dry material: From my experience, the contents of composting tumbler tend to get wet as the organic materials break down. So it’s essential to add lots of dried yard clippings, dry leaves, sawdust, shredded cardboard, paper or egg cartons to soak up the moisture.

• Difficult to ‘tumble’: As they fill up, they get very heavy to turn, so it’s everyday is arm day. It’s important to turn them once a day because they rely on aerobic decomposition. If they don’t get turned and aerated, the contents will start to smell!

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What is Takakura composting?

Takakura composting is a simple, practical composting method developed by Koji Takakura that uses locally available materials and fermentative microorganisms to rapidly decompose organic waste and household food scraps. It is designed to be odorless, space-efficient, and easy to do in households.

How does it work?

Takakura composting accelerates the breakdown of organic matter by introducing a 'fermenting liquid' or 'seed compost' rich in beneficial microorganisms.

You'll need:

• A basket or bin with good ventilation

• A cover for the basket (anything that closes the basket, like cardboard)

• A spoon or stick for stirring

• Dry materials: dried leaves, rice husks, coconut coir, newspaper, scrap paper, shredded egg cartons, or similar materials to balance moisture

• Fermenting liquid/seed compost (see below on how to make this)

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Step-by-step guide

1. Make the fermenting liquid.

   1. Method 1: Fermented food + sugar water Mix some locally made fermented foods (e.g., yogurt, kefir, tempeh, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, etc.) with sugar water. The concentration of sugar should be enough for the water to be sweet to the taste. Close the lid and 'burp' the container every day to let the gas out. After 3 to 5 days, the fermentative bacteria has reproduced amply and the liquid should smell sweet-and-sour. If the liquid smells bad or rotten, start again.

   2. Method 2: Vegetables/Fruits + salt water In countries without fermented foods, fermentative microorganisms (lactic acid bacteria and yeasts) can be found on the surface of fruits and vegetables. Locally grown organic fruit should be used for this. Any leaf or fruiting vegetable (not root vegetables) may be used. Mix salt with water; the water should be 1-2% salted. Add in the leaves and skins from vegetables and fruit. Close the lid and 'burp' the container every day to let the gas out. After 3 to 5 days, the mixture should smell slightly sour, like pickle. Once it smells like alcohol, the process is complete.

2. Line a basket with carton or cardboard on the bottom and the sides.

3. Add in some dry material at the bottom of the basket.

4. Chop up your kitchen waste.

5. Mix your fermenting liquid with new kitchen waste and dry materials (like dried leaves, rice hulls, egg cartons, or newspaper) in the basket. You can also add a handful of garden soil or compost from a previous batch of Takakura compost.

6. Mix and monitor the basket daily to ensure proper aeration and moisture levels, which helps maintain aerobic conditions and prevent odors.

7. The compost matures within a few weeks to a month, depending on whether activators (like EM4 or local microorganisms) are used.

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3 simple steps clearly explained:

Explainer of how the Takakura method works:

What to look out for

• Smells: If your Takakura is smelling foul, it may be too wet and not regularly stirred. Add in more dry materials and mix regularly (at least once a day).

• Finished product: The finished compost should be dark, crumbly, and smell likes soil after a heavy rain.

• What to add: Technically, you could add any kind of food waste to your Takakura basket but make sure you chop everything up as much as possible. As you try it out yourself, you may prefer to not add in harder-to-digest food stuffs like bones or avocado seeds if they take too long to compost and create foul smells.

Additional resources

• This blog has very helpful tips and lessons.

• Here's a cool study done on using Takakura to compost seafood waste.

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What is a Paca Digestora?

A Paca Digestora is a composting pile made of garden and yard waste on the outside and food waste on the inside, compacted with human weight (dancing, stepping, jumping). Every Paca is a live organism, shrinking with every bite and decomposition from native microbes and detritivores.

The technique and composting method of Pacas Digestoras was pioneered by Guillermo Silva, a wise and humble elder, forest lover, and environmental activist from Colombia who studied forest engineering. Growing up around forests, he marveled at the spongy forest floor that embraced and recycled nutrients from everything that fell upon it, creating fertile black humus that nurtures plant growth. Observing, listening, and learning from nature, he wondered, why can’t we do the same with human created food waste? Since the 1980s, he has been studying and refining the way to make a Paca that doesn’t emit toxic gases or exudates, and spreading this knowledge to communities around Abya Yala.

How does it work?

The composting process that occurs within a Paca Digestora is considered anaerobic fermentation, with very low oxygen levels inside the Paca. In the first few weeks, the microbes get to work fast and furiously, and their fast and furious movements generate heat that not only eliminates certain pathogens but also keep them working. Then, the temperature slowly decreases as the microbes' work start to plateau. The Paca will also slowly shrink in height as the organic waste is decomposed. After 4 to 6 months (if outdoor climate is hot/tropical) or 8 to 10 months (if outdoor climate is cool/dry), the compost is ready to be harvested!

You'll need:

• A mold made of solid material 1m length x 1m width x 40cm height

• A shovel or a thick/strong stick

• 1m³ Paca Digestora composts 500 kg of organic matter

  • 200 kg of food waste (there's nothing you can't add to the Paca Digestora!)

  • 200-300 kg of yard waste

Please contact me if you are interested in a free workshop on Pacas Digestoras!

What to look out for

Making a Paca Digestora has 4 important considerations:

1. The finalised structure should not exceed 1m³ in volume

2. All domestic organic waste has to be encapsulated by yard/garden waste

3. It has to be constructed in connection with earth/soil, NOT on top of concrete or other impermeable surfaces

4. Pacas Digestoras that are 1m³ in volume has to be 40 cm apart from other 1m³ Pacas on 2 sides, and 15 cm apart on the other 2 sides

   

What are the benefits of Pacas Digestoras?

• Pacas are versatile: You can choose to just build a Paca to harvest compost or build soil OR you can plant on top like a raised garden bed and rebuild habitats for pollinators.

• They don't emit odors or toxic gases: They don’t smell, don’t attract small animals or flies, don’t produce toxic gases.

• Pacas are low maintenance: They don’t require much maintenance — just 1 to 2 litres of water once a week if it hasn’t rained. Since it's a block of pure nutrients and goodness, quick growing invasive plants may colonise it, so you may choose to manually remove any invasive growth.

• You don't need electricity or machinery: The composting process doesn’t require electricity or machinery. All it needs is you and your fellow composters' compression, the hard work of digestion of decomposers and microorganism, and time.

• Pacas mean team work: Although you have certainly make a Paca as a family (I do with my partner 4 to 5 times a year, once we've accumulated enough food waste), it's definitely more fun to do it in community. In certain neighbourhoods in Bogota, Colombia, neighbours come together once every 2 weeks to make a Paca in the park. Seeing other people working towards a common goal with the same sense of purpose and enthusiasm, we feel we are no longer fighting climate change alone. That sentiment can be incredibly powerful. What’s more, more climate friendly projects may emerge from being in a community of action-oriented and like-minded individuals.

• They're great for the economy: They also help save local governments’ money in transporting and handling food waste, as well as maintaining beautifully planted parks.

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How to make a Paca Digestora

Step 0: Choose a location to build the Paca Digestora. The ground must be earth (not concrete, lino, rooftop, other other human-made surfaces).

Step 1: Make a base with thick branches to separate the Paca from the ground

Step 2: Add garden or yard waste (dry leaves, small branches, grass) and compress with body weight

Step 3: Add more garden or yard waste and make a ‘nest’ (a hole in the middle of the Paca with 20 cm-thick walls)

Step 4: Add food waste (anything, even poop!) into the ‘nest’ and chop it up with shovels

Step 5: Add more garden or yard waste to cover the food waste and compress with body weight (jumping, dancing — have fun with it!)

Step 6: Remove the wooden mould, add 5–8 cm of soil on top, and plant whatever plants you wish (no bushes or trees because the roots won’t be able to anchor properly)

If you have more food waste, repeat steps 3 to 5 until you reach 1 metre in height, and finish with step 6. The Paca will take about 6–8 months, depending on the climate and humidity, to break down into compost!

Example of the mould

Essentially, the mould is a sturdy 4-walled structure that is relatively easy to lift among 3 to 4 people. The mould is reused like a cake mould. It is removed as soon as the Paca is made.

Here's an example of how we made ours. Contact me for the PDF guide and I'll send it to you for free.

Please contact me if you are interested in a free workshop on Pacas Digestoras!

What is terracotta composting?

Terracotta composting uses a stack of terracotta pots to process food and organic waste. This system works well for small families and households of 2 to 3 people. The terracotta pots all have drilled holes for aeration and the bottom pot has its bottom removed with netting for airflow. They can be stacked anywhere--indoors, on a balcony, or a shaded outdoor area.

This instructable shows how to make a terracotta composter. Here's another DIY guide.

This garden uses a tall terracotta pot with the bottom removed (you can also use a rhubarb forcer) and placed on top of a 1-metre deep hole.

How does it work?

You'll need:

• 2 to 4 terracotta pots that fit on top of one another

• A drying, absorbent material, like dried leaves, cocopeat, or sawdust

• Newspaper or recycled/scrap paper

You can even buy terra cotta pots and simply drill some holes in them like so:

Once you have your pots, you'll layer newspaper, the drying material, and food waste like a lasagna until the top pot is full, then you move the top pot to the second-to-bottom position, as indicated in this video:

When can I harvest the compost?

Check the older pots every month to see whether the organic materials are breaking down well. You may need to add some more dry material if it’s too wet. Since larger pots are used in this technique, you should be able to harvest in 2 to 3 months. If you find that your materials haven’t broken down sufficiently so you cannot vacate that pot, simply get another and stack it on top. Once ready, it should look like this:

What is Bokashi bin composting?

Bokashi is Japanese but the word apparently doesn't have much to do with composting. It means 'shading' or gradation', perhaps meaning the altering of state of the organic matter itself. The word bokashi has been borrowed to mean a kind of anaerobic fermentation of food waste. So when I use the term 'bokashi bin composting', I'm referring to the process of making pre-compost through the anaerobic fermentation process.

Dr. Teruo Higa, the man who came up with the optimal mix for effective microorganisms (EM) in the 1980s, initially got really ill due to agrotoxic use while studying orange farms. His EM formula is now widely used to inoculate Bokashi bran, used in this composting method.

Pre-compost? How does it differ from compost?

After spending 2 weeks in the bokashi bin with a generous amount of bokashi bran, the end product from bokashi bin composting is called bokashi pre-compost (wow, how many times can bokashi be used in a sentence?) It won't look very broken down or anything close to soil-like compost but rest assured, the anaerobic microbes have worked and are working their magic.

Pre-compost means that the organic waste is not yet fully broken down but the process as begun. To complete the composting process, some people choose to bury the pre-compost in their garden or a big gardening pot. Others make a 'soil factory' mixing the bokashi pre-compost with soil (1:2 ratio). You can also add this pre-compost to a worm composting system, taking care to add a small amount first with lots of brown materials so that the pre-compost doesn't alter the pH of the worm bin too much and that the worms become accustomed to the new materials before adding more.

How does it work?

You'll need:

• A bin or a bucket

• Wheat bran, rice hulls, coffee grounds, newspaper, dried leaves

• Effective Microorganisms (EM), commercially sold in a form of a bottle but you can also make it yourself

Can I do this without the bokashi bran?

You can technically do this without the EM. This indoor compost bin seems to work well for the pre-compost process but after 2 to 3 weeks, you would still need to deal with the pre-compost by burying it or adding it to a soil factory or a wormery. I would recommend grabbing a handful of dried leaves or native soil around your neighbourhood (just make sure there are no chemical fertilisers or pesticides!) and adding it to your food waste in the bucket. Dried leaves and native soil are teeming with beneficial microorganisms.

World-saving microbes!

What is worm composting? 🪱

Worm composting, or vermicomposting, is a great way to compost and 'get rid' of food waste at home and in small spaces. The worms eat your organic waste, digest it through their gut, and poop it out. The fancier term for worm poop is worm castings, which are full of beneficial microbes from the worm's gut. There are many different ways to do worm composting at home, whether it be indoors or outdoors in the garden or concrete patio.

Worm composting is great because this technique produces compost faster than a compost pile. You can then make vermicompost tea (check out this great resource on how to make vermicompost tea) as liquid fertiliser or simply mix the vermicompost in with your potting soil or garden soil.

Will any worm do?

Unfortunately, no.

While earthworms are great at burrowing and have the important role of aerating soil, they don't eat quite as fast as other species of worms that are great decomposers. Out of about 9000 worm species, 7 or so of them make wonderful composters.

• The Red Wiggler Worm (Eisenia fetida): They are one of the best and most efficient worm species for vermicomposting because they can eat as much as half of its weight on a daily basis. Not only do they produce high quality compost, they also reproduce quickly. Every 6 months, they produce two new generations and it's recommended not to move our disturb them the first 6 months, so they have ample time to eat and reproduce without stress.

• The Blue Worm (Perionyx excavatus), also known as the traveling worm or the India blue worm, is native to the tropical parts of Asia.

• The African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus eugeniae) is a tropical worm that can withstand higher temperatures when given enough moisture.

• The Jumper worm (Anymthas gracilis) is a long worm that works well in tropical and subtropical regions.

What to look out for

1. Generally, it's not recommended to compost meat, bones, cooking oils, salt, and eggshells with worms.

   • Meat and bones: It's not that worms don't eat meat; they just take a very long time to do so. Meanwhile, the meat gets rotten and attract pathogenic microorganisms that could harm the health of the worms and the worm bin.

   • Cooking oils: Too much cooking oil could coat the worms and impair their breathing, since they breath through their skin.

   • Salt and eggshells: Salt dehydrates them and eggshells cut their delicate bodies.

2. It's recommended to pre-compost (Bokashi or bin method) the food waste before giving it to the worms. That way they can break it down much faster.

3. Chop the food waste up into pieces no bigger than 20 cm length/width.

4. Feed them about once a month. Check on them to see how fast they're eating. If you go away on vacation, make sure someone comes to feed them.

5. If you see worms balling up, it means they're stressed. Something's off. Common reasons could be that they need more moisture and humidity or they're not being fed enough.

Examples of worm composting structures

There are as many ways to make worm composting work for you as there are creative humans on this planet because people who compost are scrappy, resourceful, and imaginative. Here are some helpful examples to get you started. As you start doing it yourself, you'll start adapting and improving the system to make the lives of your worms better and happier.

Worm tower

Worm tower in the garden, or worm hotel

Worm bin or box (good option for indoors)

What is composting?

Composting is the process of breaking down organic materials, such as food scraps, garden waste, leaves, even poop, into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that is full of life called compost. Anything that was once alive (and therefore organic) will eventually die and recycle back into the soil, thus completing the cycle of life. This process can be sped up by creating ideal conditions such as proper temperature, moisture, and aeration.

Why should we compost?

• Composting reduces land and water pollution: Organic waste, when trapped in plastic bags with other waste, undergoes anaerobic decomposition that produces leachates and causes land and water pollution in and near landfills. In certain kinds of composting that uses anaerobic fermentation, leachates are not in such quantities and concentration to cause pollution.

• Composting reduces GHG emissions: Again, when organic waste is trapped in plastic bags, at some point during the anaerobic fermentation, methane is produced. Methane is 25 to 36 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Landfills with food waste contribute 6-10% of methane emissions.

• Composting improves soil health: Compost, rich in beneficial microbes and readily available nutrients for the soil, improves soil structure, health, and fertility.

• Composting enhances water retention in soil: Since compost is broken down organic matter, it does wonders in improving soil composition and retaining water in soil, supporting healthy plant growth.

• Nothing goes to waste: When managed properly, composting ensures that organic matter is recycled back into the earth, instead of sitting in some landfill rotting away. Humans call some version of this "circular economy" but really it's just appreciating natural systems and learning how they work.

• Composting reduces agrochemical use: If the soil is healthy, there is absolutely zero need to use chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other killing agents that not only kills soil microbes but our own microbes.

• Composting is fun: I haven't heard of a single person that have gone back to throwing food waste into the trash can after learning about composting because it's fun and it's really great to know that you're not contributing to contamination.

• Composting is natural: The unnatural thing is wrapping organic and food waste in plastic bags. The only reason they smell bad is because they're trapped in plastic bags and not decomposing the right way, the way they should.

Who does the composting?

Composting is done by hardworking decomposers, which are primarily microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, that break down dead organic material during composting. They digest complex organic compounds into simpler molecules, facilitating the transformation of waste into nutrient-rich compost. Other macro decomposers include earthworms and detritivores, like roly-polies, earwigs, springtails, fly larvae, millipedes, cockroaches, etc. which physically break down material and help aerate the compost pile, further aiding microbial activity.

How to compost?

Composting flowchart! Pick your weapon of mass decomposition

Did you notice… that electric ‘composters’ are not included, such as Lomi, Vitamix FoodCycler, Idoo, etc.? That’s because they’re not actually composters. Composting takes time and the hard work of the decomposers. More importantly, composting produces compost, which is full of life, even if we can’t see them with our bare eyes. What these electric ‘composters’ do is heat up the food waste and grind them up, using electricity. They produce a dried up and ground up substrate devoid of life. Only consider them if you want to spend a lot of money, jack up your electricity bill, and get rid of only a fraction of your food waste.

List of composting techniques

The following posts are coming soon—stay tuned!

• Enclosed compost bin

• Takakura composting

• Bokashi composting

• Terracotta pots

• Worm / vermicomposting

• Open air compost bins

• Paca Digestora

• Garden bed

• Green cone

• Chickens

• Outdoor tumbler

1 What impact does this decision have on the next seven generations?
For most of us, our imagination brings us at most to the generation of our grandchildren. Seven generations from now in the time of our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren (if we were alive, we might be 180 years old!), what would the world look like? Our society teaches us to plan ahead and save up so that we retire with a pension; should we not do the same with the environment? Wealth doesn’t exist in banks, but out there in nature. How can we save that up for all humans’ and non-humans’ future generations?

Our short human lives can sometimes be limiting to our imagination — it’s difficult for us to understand the lives of the 1,000-year-old sequoia trees that witnessed human’s destruction of their forests, or the 400-year-old Greenland sharks that now live in too-hot oceans, or the millions-plus-year-old living rocks that grow only 4–5 centimetres every 1,000 years. But let us try.

2 Who gets impacted by this decision and what is my relationship with them? How can I transform this relationship into that of reciprocity?
Let’s say we buy a milk chocolate bar from a widely marketed, commercial brand. Who gets impacted? We can start from where the cacao was grown to the retail store we bought it from, to the landfill the plastic wrapper will go. And let’s not forget about our health.

So here goes the (not exhaustive) list:

• Cacao farmers and processors, sugar farmers, dairy farmers (Did they get ripped off? Is their health negatively affected by pesticides and chemical fertilisers?)

• Plants, insects, and other animals that lived on these farms (Did they get sprayed with and killed by pesticides and chemical fertilisers, antibiotics, etc.?)

• Fossil fueled transporters on land, air, sea to get the cacao to the chocolate manufacturers

• Chocolate manufacturer factory workers; retail store workers; trash collecting or recycling workers (Are they being paid a living wage?)

• Land on which the landfill sits (Surely one plastic wrapper doesn’t make that much of a difference?)

• The chocolate brand that belongs to a larger multi-national corporation that also sells shampoo, detergent, and cereal (Do they need more money?)

• Us! (Is all that dairy and sugar so great for our health?)

I know, I know. It’s just too cumbersome to go through this for the simple decision of buying a chocolate bar. It is. But it’s also what is needed now because our planet is on the verge of collapse without changing the way we think and act.

Now comes the hopeful part. How can we transform our relationships with the ‘who’ on the list into those of reciprocity? Nature is the gift that keeps on giving and humanity just keeps on taking. What can we give back? A good place to start is to ask ourselves what we’re good at and what we’re interested in learning more about — planting, saving seeds, composting, re-using and re-purposing, educating others, etc.

I admit that I have a serious chocolate craving and I’m lucky enough to live in a country where cacao is naturally grown. My way of satisfying my craving is by buying 80% dark chocolate bar from local chocolate makers that don’t use plastic wrappers and compost the paper wrapping once I’m done with my guilty pleasure. I also recently became interested in how to make chocolate at home and have bought fresh cacao fruits from agroecological farmers and farmers’ markets.

3 Are the processes involved in service of all life?

“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

How we think about processes requires a bit of imagination and investigation. If it’s an item or a thing, imagine the conception of its life to its end — how did it come about? Was it grown, mined, made? How did it get to your hands? How, where, how many times will you use it? After your use, where will it go? If it’s an experience, how did it come about? What’s the story? What steps are involved? If you had to justify it to someone, what would you say? Did anyone, human or non-human, get harmed along the way?

Everything is alive (even rocks, I recently found out). How can we and our decisions be in service of all life? We are the amalgamation of our thoughts and actions. As indigenous peoples have shown, when humans see ourselves as a part of nature, we can be constructive and regenerative, living in harmony with the rest of nature. Let’s choose thoughts and actions that serve all life!

If you used these questions as your own thought experiment for your next decision or would like to add another question to the list, please leave a comment!

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