Revitalising gardens with recycled compost

For many green thumbs in and around Echuca, gardens full of flowers, fruits and veggies are thriving thanks to the food scraps and garden clippings that they’ve sorted into their bins.

Local home gardeners and landscapers frequently visit Kennaugh's Garden Centre to grab one of their favourite garden products, Biomix compost.

Biomix is a compost product created from household food and garden organics bins in the region. Residents sort things like orange peels and lawn clippings into their lime green bins. These organic materials get turned into compost, a great source of nutrition for their veggie patches and flower beds. And this season’s kitchen and garden scraps will become next season’s compost, so the cycle continues.

Kennaugh’s have used around 3000 cubic metres of Biomix compost since introducing it in 2013. That’s equivalent to the weight of almost 35 buses. The garden centre uses the recycled compost to make two of their own popular soil blends. Keen gardeners also buy the compost from the garden centre to create their own potting mix.

The recycled compost product works so well that many staff members use it in their own veggie gardens.

Bringing the saying “what goes around, comes around” to life

The quality of the compost relies on locals to correctly recycle their food scraps and garden clippings in the lime green bin, and to keep rubbish out.

“It’s important to keep all types of plastic out of the food and garden organics bin so recycled compost continues to be an effective product for your garden,” says Jade Kane, Kennaugh's sand and soil manager.

There are many benefits to using a recycled compost product. It:

• adds nutrients naturally instead of using artificial fertilisers or chemicals

• improves soil health and quality

• makes crops hardier

• helps break down clay soils

• helps sandy soils hold more moisture.

Using a recycled compost product also ensures valuable resources are put to good use. Correctly recycling food and garden organics also keeps them out of landfill, where they’d rot and produce methane emissions. Instead, they can be used to keep our gardens green. It’s a win for our health and a win for our environment.