Make your garden even greener (and get free compost!)
THE lockdown has led to a gardening boom, with many of us spending more time than ever before tending our plots. Yet mowing, pruning and grooming our gardens to perfection inevitably generates lots of rubbish. Rather than filling up countless refuse sacks, help your garden to flourish by starting a compost heap.
Lawn clippings, prunings and a host of other waste items can be added to heaps, where they will rot down quickly.
Within three months you’ll have an open, nutrient-rich compost that can be dug into the soil to improve its structure, workability and moisture-retention, or spread over the surface as a mulch.
Either order a ready-made bin from an online supplier or knock one up yourself from bits of timber, bricks or chicken wire attached to stout posts.
Place the structure on grass or soil, which will help drainage and allow worms access. Put a waterproof cover on top to prevent contents getting soggy.
As a rule, compost heaps should contain a mixture of ‘green’ and ‘brown’ waste. Greens are soft, sappy materials that rot down quickly, providing nitrogen and moisture to the mix. Browns are drier, giving compost structure. On their own, greens produce a smelly sludge, so add more brown material to your mix.
Spent flower heads, plant trimmings, annual weeds and dried leaves are perfect in compost heaps – lawn clippings have a high moisture content so allow them to dry out for a few days. Broken eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, most vegetable peelings and shredded newspaper from the house can also be used.
Never add diseased plant material or perennial weeds, and think twice about chucking in potato peelings as sprouts tend to develop, resulting in spuds popping up all over the place. Avoid attracting rodents by placing meat, fish and cooked food from the kitchen in the rubbish bin, not on the compost heap.
Aim to create thin, alternating layers of green and brown materials – thick seams of one type of stuff can be slow to rot, or won’t decompose at all. Feed branches through a shredder or chop up into lots of small pieces with loppers to speed decomposition.
Look after compost heaps by turning the contents every week with a garden fork to reduce compaction and ensure good aeration. During hot, sunny spells the contents of bins can dry out, so sprinkle with water occasionally to prevent a check to decomposition.