A lot of us have tried composting and have faltered along the way. Here is a story of how Adv. And Notary Sweta Naik Gauneker revived her journey of composting in her own words.
Childhood memories
Whenever I think of the word composting ..my childhood memories comes to my mind, when I have seen my mother who was a gardener at heart she always loved plants and all stuff related to them. She used to always use her kitchen waste and bury it in her garden and say she is making manure. I have grown up seeing this and I think this love for plants came from her to me. She always gave me tips on gardening but whenever I inquired about composting to her ...she would say, now I don't do it as rats are attracted to the composting station so I personally being scared of pests, I too dropped the idea very quickly.
Starting the composting journey, hiccups and a long pause...
Later when I came across composting buckets online, I bought one such kit and tried my hand at it....I went according to their instructions and got lovely compost from it...and my plants loved their feed. But suddenly it came to my mind that I should add fish and meat bones to the composting to make it more nutritious. That is where I think I lost the battle and OMG ....I saw rats entering my flat balcony ransacking my compost bucket ....n I even later found maggots in the bin when I told this to my mom...all surely can guess what she must've said...Goshhh that was my end and I stopped composting 4 years back ...but I being an earth lover always purchased organic compost from nurseries for my plants...but always kept wondering if it was really having the nutrients in it as my mom used to always believe in homemade manure and plain fish water for her roses.....
Resuming the journey with community support
But now after four years I joined ComePostVille Panaji a whatsapp group of plant lovers and compost enthusiasts....who again ignited the fire of composting within me ....so I took few tips from Mr. Allwyn Siqueira, in that group and also from my cousin Dr. Ashadevi Netravalkar who does composting in her garden....and lo and behold....my story of home composting restarted....and believe me ...for composting one does not require a huge garden ....I do it in a 12 inch plastic Vase to which I have drilled small holes and have kept a small plate below for any oozing liquid....and have layered equal amounts of dry leaves, garden soil, some vermicompost and now the lesson learnt is I put only vegetable scrap and shreds ( which the rats obviously don't like) from the kitchen which is cut into small pieces and put into the layers.... and I mix the entire thing every three days ....and pls remember to add some water to it but the overall layers should be only moist and not drenched in water in order to accelerate composting....so the key to composting is that just like our life we need to have to maintain a balance of all ingredients to enjoy the benefits of it....keep composting and loving mother EARTH as she is the one who loves us unconditionally.....
Sweta has (despite her hectic schedule ), broken two myths here, through her perseverance
1. Composting cannot be done in apartments
2. Composting cannot be done by working professionals.
Let us all #PlayOurPart towards sustainability
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