Introducing a quick tutorial on how to use compost as garden soil. Kitchener Clean proudly offers an "Office Compost Program" to businesses in the Waterloo Region - contact us today to get started!
How to Use Compost as Garden Soil
According to Planet Natural, “Compost is added to your garden as a soil amendment to improve structure, buffer pH, increase the population of micro- and macro-organisms, and add organic material on which soil organisms feed.”
In other words, compost improves your garden’s capacity to hold water and nutrients, and increases the activity of beneficial yet unseen organisms.
Compost is generally spread on top garden beds, but can be worked in through tilling to improve the way soil particles fit together, as well as the way air and water move through them. You can also use it on lawns and in pots, baskets and containers. If you have enough of it, it makes an excellent mulch.
The great video below will show you more about how to use compost as garden soil.
What is compost, anyways?
You may be wondering what we mean by “compost” in the first place.
According to the University of Florida’s “Living Green” program, “composting is the biological decomposition of organic waste such as food or plant material by bacteria, fungi, worms and other organisms under controlled aerobic (occurring in the presence of oxygen) conditions. The end result of composting is an accumulation of partially decayed organic matter called humus.”
Additionally, composting with worms - also known as vermiculture - results in nutrient-loaded worm castings.
Here, then, we’re talking about taking that decomposed organic waste and the act of spreading it on top of your garden soil to help your plants grow without resorting to harmful chemical fertilizers.
Composting involves the natural breakdown of organic waste.
What can be composted?
In Kitchener, Ontario, for example, green bins full of organic waste are collected from single-family homes, legal duplexes, eligible townhouse units, and small apartment buildings (6 units or less) every week. Here’s what can be tossed in the green compost bin:
All food scraps including bones, peelings, shells, baking and cooking ingredients, spoiled and raw and cooked food (remove all packaging, stickers)
Small amounts of liquids - no more than one cup per green bin.
Some paper products, such as paper plates, paper towels, facial tissue, greasy take-out paper packaging, paper baking cups, shredded paper
Businesses, unlike private residences, don't have access to any formal composting programs, meaning all waste is put into the garbage and sent to the landfill. While cleaning for clients, Kitchener Clean noticed a large volume of organic waste generated in offices and discarded into the garbage. For example, one client with staff of only 20-25 generated over 600 pounds of organic waste in a single year!
The organic material collected enters the compost stream in one of four ways; donated to local neighbourhood garden compost piles; sent to the Region’s Compost facility; sent to a facility that disposes of organic waste called Davidson Environmental; or used at Kitchener Clean’s Worm Farm where it becomes worm castings (a high grade fertilizer).
Green bins full of organic waste are collected each week to create compost for garden soil.
Start Office Composting Today!
From our inception, we have always been an environmentally responsible company. While cleaning for our clients, we noticed large volumes of organic waste generated by offices and simply being discarded into the garbage.
In the Waterloo Region, businesses, unlike residences, don't have access to any formal composting programs. This means that all waste is put into the garbage and sent to the landfill - even food waste.
That’s why Kitchener Clean launched the Office Compost Program. We proudly offer our office composting services to businesses across the Waterloo Region, helping businesses to affect climate change in a positive way.