Aamodi has learnt composting from her mother Aparna. She has recently harvested her first compost.
On Mother's day, here is her Learning Journey in her own words on how she is playing her part for Mother Earth.
Black gold✨
Nowadays, the sweet earthy smell of my compost and my plants that thrive in it motivate me to get out of bed in the morning. After my board exams ended, I decided to collect all the fruit and veggie peels and start composting. I arranged the coconut coir and dried foliage from my garden at the bottom of my compost bin and added daily kitchen waste to it consistently. To speed up the process I added sour buttermilk as a catalyst in the compost bin.
Composting taught me to separate sweet fruit peels and make bio enzymes from them. Ants would soon line up for a treat if they were added to the daily dump. The consistency had to be (quoting my mother) like an ओली भेळ, just apt amount of moisture. I learnt, if flies were swarming around the bin, it was time to balance the moisture and add some browns aka dry leaves and coconut peat.
Composting is Therapeutic
To me, gardening and especially composting has become therapeutic and soothing. There is something magical about the aroma, the texture and the soft crunchy sound of decomposing corn cobs! Just observing the little worms and maggots moving around and turning the pile of 'garbage' into black gold thrilled me.
Impact on the environment
As soon as I started composting, our wet waste bin became lighter and for most of the days of the week it was empty! I realized that if every household began to compost, our waste production will be cut down by half!
I started posting my composting and gardening journey on Instagram with the hope that just the way I got inspired to start making conscious choices towards sustainable living, my friends and actually every person on Earth should enjoy Nature's magic of making black gold.
Tons of scraps people relentlessly and mindlessly throw in rivers, roads and public places can be turned into compost which can make the very same place beautiful, green and clean! So let's be the change we wish to see in this world!
Aamodi recently finished her 12th and is a Bharatnatyam and Chhau dancer, a plant enthusiast and loves to read and travel. She can be reached on Instagram handle @_thegardenerd7
Such an inspiring learning journey - Very well written!