YES. Absolutely you can fill it with just worm friendly scraps if that is what you prefer, but you will have to separate all your scraps into two piles. I personally don’t have time to fiddle with separating food waste and just toss it all in together. One thing though – you may find the Compot will need emptying more often as the worms try to fill the pot up with soil and their castings. But you will have beautiful compost more regularly to harvest if this is your aim and your Compot will be full of worms.

There is no need to water your Compots specifically. When you water your garden water will naturally go into the Compot through the holes and this is a good thing as it will keep the contents nice and moist.

If, however, you found your pots were really dry and the waste was not decomposing at all then you might want to add some water to soften the waste to help the decomposition process along. Dry contents can occur when you don’t cover your Compots with leaves, or hay etc because the hot sun gets in, in summer, and dries the contents out, dehydrating the waste rather than decomposing it. Much the same as if you were to throw your waste out onto an open lawn without burying it. The same will happen in winter but this time it is the cold air drying out or freezing the contents.

You can fill your Compot with any biodegradable waste from your kitchen. IE: Anything that will break down. EG: Meat, citrus, onions, oil, dairy, eggs, coffee grounds, tea and tea bags, paper towel, old nuts, pasta, bread, cooked food of any sort, wastewater (with or without detergent), milk, cream, yogurt, and anything else you can find in your kitchen that you would normally eat or throw in your council bin, aside from the obvious; glass, plastic, metal etc. So literally everything that you produce in the kitchen that is biodegradable.

Everything will decompose – even doggie doo (un-medicated preferably unless you are putting this waste by a big tree or unused part of your garden). No doggie doo in your veggie patch either.

The time it takes to decompose will just depend on the density of the food, the time of the year, and whether you are relying on all the elements to decompose your waste or just worms.

If you only want to fill your Compot with worm friendly scraps, then you need to leave out most of what I just said you could put in the Compot. It’s up to you how you want to use your Compot and what you feed it. But I find it more efficient to fill it with everything. Just do what is best for you. See other tips and tricks about ways to make it work faster.

Generally yes — soaking your scraps in wastewater to ferment them for a few days helps deter rats and other garden critters.

Fruit and vegetables can disappear within one to two weeks. Composting all your kitchen waste typically takes 4–6 weeks, or up to 10 weeks in colder climates.

As a general guide, start with one Compot per person in your household, plus one extra for the garden — though this varies with waste volume, climate and soil type.