Compost is the ultimate in recycling: using up organic material to create food for your garden and all those vegetables you’re going to start growing in your garden. Use kitchen waste such as peelings, tea bags and even old paper towels and garden waste such as clippings, fallen leaves and old bedding plants.
Using waste to feed your garden to give you fab quality plants and vegetables has to make good sense, environmentally, and economically. Give it a go – see how easy it is to get started.
Choose your spot
You need a largish container with access at the bottom or simply raise a heap in a contained area and cover with polythene or cardboard. Build your own bin, or buy one – your local council usually sell very reasonably priced bins (some such as Hounslow even give them free). Make sure your compost bin is easy to access and is in a sunny, dry or semi-shaded position directly on the soil or turf.
What to compost
Adding material to compost bin
You’ll get a feel for the right blend of ingredients, with practice. But for best results, use a mixture of types of ‘greens’ and ‘browns’
Greens (fast rotting and nitrogen rich): Urine (diluted with water 20:1), Nettles, Grass cuttings, Raw vegetable peelings, Tea bags and leaves, Coffee grounds, Young green weed growth – avoid weeds with seeds, Soft green prunings, Animal manure from herbivores e.g. cows and horses, Poultry manure and bedding
Browns (slow rotting and carbon rich): Cardboard e.g. cereal packets and egg boxes, Shredded paper, Scrunched up paper, Cardboard tubes, Newspaper – but it’s really better to send your newspapers for recycling, Bedding from vegetarian pets e.g. rabbits, guinea pigs & hamsters, Woody prunings, Old bedding plants, Sawdust & wood shavings, Fallen leaves
Other things you can add: Wood ash – in moderation Hair & nail clippings Egg shells (crushed) Natural fibres e.g. 100% wool or cotton
Absolute no-nos! Meat, Fish, Cooked food, Coal & coke ash, Diseased plants, Perennial weeds or weeds with seed-heads, Cat litter, Dog poo! Disposable nappies
What to do
wooden compost bin
Layer your compost material as much as possible to keep the rotting process even. If it’s unbalanced (too many grass clippings for instance) it may not produce a very pleasant end product. Air is a really important ingredient. Every so often give it a turn with a garden fork or special compost aerator. It can take from 8 weeks to a year or more. But the more effort you put into cultivating it, the quicker you’ll get usable compost.
When it’s ready
ready-to-use compost
When your compost has turned into a dark brown, earthy smelling material, it’s ready. Usually material at the bottom is ready first. A fine and crumbly texture is best. But it’s still usable lumpy, sticky or stringy, with bits of twig and eggshell still apparent. Any big bits can be added back into your new compost heap. Move it out to a clean container bin or pile and leave for a month or two to ‘mature’ before using.
Did you know?
About 40 per cent of the average dustbin contents are suitable for home-composting, so it helps to reduce landfill too.
Related features
Buying a compost bin
Even Greener is a great source of ecological garden supplies – especially compost and water-saving devices. We love this wooden composter which can grace most gardens – town and country. Buy it now online from evengreener.com
Useful links
How to make your own compost bin. There are easy step by step instructions for making this and other compost bins on the Instructables website.
We like this one as it’s small and allows you to make and use at the same time. There’s also instructions for making one from old pallets – love it!
If you prefer to buy one we have some on our MIAMI Store as well as composting bins for the kitchen and compost makers to accelerate the process.
Posted by Make It and Mend It: Website Review | Simple Green Living (unregistered) on October 5, 2009 at 11:32pm
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