Natural goodness all in the mix
Turn your garden waste into nutritious crumbly compost that will improve the health of your plants, says LOUISE MIDGLEY
IT MAY seem like the obvious thing to do in these savvy days of recycling but many gardeners find the process of composting a tad bewildering.and yet garden compost is an immensely healthy soil improver which adds nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to the soil as well as a wide range of essential micro nutrients.
As a result of lockdown, masses of garden waste will have been generated from all the gardeners who found extra time to spend outdoors.
So now would be the perfect time to get a compost bin and save money by making your own garden compost.
For best results, combine green, nitrogen-rich material with brown, carbon-rich matter.the green waste includes any soft green vegetation, grass clippings from the lawn mower and uncooked, vegetable or fruit peelings from the kitchen.
Fill a compost bin solely with green waste and the compacted layers will weigh heavy on each other, preventing the free flow of air in the mix.this is a common mistake to make and will inevitably take years to break down.
But by adding an equal measure of woody brown material that includes shredded shrub prunings, paper, straw or dried leaves, moisture from the soft green material will be absorbed. More importantly, the drier matter will help form a mass of air pockets between the layers which sustains the bacteria and micro-organisms as they work on breaking down the decaying matter.
This is why turning the compost heap or fluffing it up with a fork helps speed up the process.
There are also products on the market that speed up the composting process. The Envii Compost Accelerator helps turn garden waste into usable compost by generating heat to accelerate the breakdown and sterilisation of the garden matter.
Just drop one of the soluble tablets, which contains billions of natural bacteria and fungi, into a watering can of warm water and pour onto the heap. ● Envii Compost Accelerator can be bought from: envii.co.uk