Soriya is a busy mum with three boys aged 2, 4 and 5. The family moved to a house in Forrest Hill on the North Shore a year ago, and have been enjoying using the products of their compost bins and worm farm on their garden for the first time.
Soriya has taught her three boys what they can put in the worm farm, and has set it up so that they can reach it easily. She says the trick is to incorporate composting into your everyday family routine so that it becomes second nature, and include the children in those routines so that they learn at an early age how to sort their waste and what to do with it.
Soriya learnt the basics of composting by attending a Council funded free composting course, and got her first compost bin with her discount voucher. Since then, she has added a second bin purchased from a DIY store, and a worm farm given to her by friends. She is now contemplating making her own bins and worm farms, and finds the internet a good source of design ideas, and Trademe and the inorganic collection to be a good source of potential second-hand materials.
Further learning about composting and gardening has been gathered from online gardening groups, which Soriya finds very helpful for a novice gardener. She also uses online groups such as neighbourly.co.nz to find sources of compost materials she needs, such as big bags of dried leaves which she has been able to collect from people in her local area.
Soriya’s advice to anyone who has a busy lifestyle is to keep composting simple, stick to the basics and be patient. Before they moved to Forrest Hill they still composted even though they didn’t use it on the garden, because they had space for a bin and it meant they significantly reduced the amount of rubbish they put out for weekly collections. She says you can always give the finished compost away to a neighbour! It’s an added bonus for Soriya that she now has a ‘gardening-friendly garden’ and can complete the cycle by using her own compost and worm tea to grow things.
Quotes and tips from Soriya:
“Composting has become just part of what we do in our lives and it’s really easy”
“The amount of waste you save from going out on rubbish day is just huge”
“The boys know that worms don’t like oranges”
“If the kids are eating outside, they will just go and put their food waste straight in the worm bin now”
