Composting on a Small Scale
Do you live in a small space with no garden, but would still like to compost your food scraps? Are you looking for a way of composting without the heavy lifting, due to illness or disability? We’ve a couple of solutions for you.
Small wormeries
There are some small wormeries on the market that can be kept indoors. Suitable for one to two people, you can chop your food scraps finely, mix them with an equal volume of shredded paper or torn-up cardboard and add them to the surface of your wormery. See our wormeries page for more information.
There are a couple of downsides to small wormeries like this:
You can’t compost all your food scraps – we don’t recommend adding cooked food, meat, cereals or dairy to a wormery like this, as the food may start to go smelly and attract flies before the worms have time to eat it, so you need to stick to fruit and veg.
If things go wrong, there’s nowhere to hide – it’s easy for wormeries to get too acidic or soggy for worms to be comfortable. In a large wormery, it’s likely that there will still be parts of the wormery that the worms are happy with. In a very small wormery, you’ll need to be very vigilant in checking on your worms. Make sure any liquid is drained out of the base every day, and take swift action if you see worms starting to crawl up the sides – if it’s too wet, add more shredded paper or other ‘browns’. If it’s too acidic, add some powdered eggshell.
Bokashi used with soil factories
It’s possible to do bokashi with any size of container, so for one or two people living in a small space, you might use a few old ice cream tubs or tupperwares rather than big buckets. Choose a size that works for you – any container with a tight-fitting lid will do.
When it comes to composting your fermented food scraps, you can use any size box to make a soil factory. Or you can make soil directly in a plant pot – tie the whole thing up in some tight-weave fabric to keep insects out while your food turns to soil
View this slideshow to see how I made a soil factory directly in a plant pot. I’ll be able to plant straight into this in about 4 to 8 weeks’ time. I’ll check that all the food has decomposed by poking around in it with my trowel.
You will need some soil or compost, some bokashi fermented food scraps and an open container or flower pot 
Add a few cm soil to the bottom of the pot 
now add some food scraps 
add some soil 
another layer of food scraps 
More soil. Mix it all in well, then add a final layer of soil – at least 5cm. This will prevent bad smells as the food breaks down. 
My soil felt very dry, so I added a little water. You want it to be moist but not dripping wet 
Mix in the water a bit 
All done 
Wrap the whole thing in a close weave fabric. I’m using some cheap gauze here. This is to stop any insects getting in. 
I tied it tight with some twine 
Now hide it somewhere cool and dark. This is a kitchen cupboard. A shed or garage would do too. I’ll be able to use this in about 8 weeks’ time. I’ll poke around in it to check that all the food has broken down
The Compost Connection 