Heaps of goodness
Give plants a lift and save the Earth by making your own compost. Pick a way that works for you and say hello to a mound of black gold
Composting at home is a fantastic way to recycle household waste and put goodness back into your soil. It is eco-friendly and plants love it.
Start now and come next season, you will have a ready supply of free, perfectly proportioned compost, choc-full of nutrients to give your soil and plants a beautiful boost.
There are many different methods of composting. Compost heaps, which are piles of biodegradable waste, work well in larger gardens that have the space for them and are easy to access.
Site your heap in a sunny or partially shaded position on soil or grass – this encourages worms to join the party and speed up the process.
Compost bins are good alternatives for smaller spaces and, unlike heaps, can be moved around.
They are available in wooden, plastic and tumbler styles.
Wooden compost bins are open to the air, which supports the composting process but can also make them a bit smelly.
Plastic bins are the opposite – they are covered up, which can slow down the whole process but this stops them from getting quite so pongy.
Finally, tumbler bins rotate to speed things up – but you cannot add to them as easily as you can with wooden or plastic bins.
Some local councils offer heavily discounted bins to encourage people to recycle waste rather than send it to landfill. See getcomposting.com for more info.
Wormeries are another great option. Rather than relying solely on micro-organisms to get the job done, they use worms to break down waste as well. As a result, they tend to produce compost faster than other ways of composting.
Wormeries attract creepy crawlies so they are best situated away from the house. Choose a sheltered spot so the worms won’t get too cold.
To minimise fruit flies, wrap the waste in newspaper and avoid adding citrus, spicy foods or anything from the onion family, as the worms won’t like it.
Your wormery compost should be ready in about three months. Start now to have homemade compost ready for spring.
You can compost most household waste that breaks down naturally. So
try fruit and vegetables that are past their best, stale bread, coffee grounds, ripped up cardboard, crushed egg shells, old tea bags (look out for plastic-free versions) and even vacuum cleaner dust.
Compostable waste is split into two categories – brown waste, which is rich in carbon and slow to rot, and green waste, which is rich in nitrogen and quick to rot.
To identify which category items belong to, think about whether they go off quickly. For example, banana skins are green waste because they rot quickly in your fruit bowl, while
You can use old fruit and veg, stale bread and coffee grounds
hedge trimmings are brown because they break down slowly.
It is best to avoid adding dairy products, nappies, cat litter, and meat or fish scraps to compost – these can smell putrid and attract rats.
So now you have got your plot and the ingredients, it’s time to get started.
Put a 10cm layer of coarse material such as twigs, straw or scrunched up cardboard on the bottom to create air circulation and drainage.
Next, add equal quantities of alternating green and brown material in 15cm layers. You can also add a sprinkling of garden soil on top of each layer to add vital micro-organisms and start the breakdown.
For swift results, fill the entire compost bin or heap at once as a larger mass will generate more heat. If you’re filling as you go, each time you add green material, add some brown too.
Turning the heap once a month is usually recommended. This means using a garden fork to move waste from the bottom to the top.
The idea is that this oxygenates the heap and enables micro-organisms to thrive, aiding breakdown.
Eventually, you can stop adding ingredients and leave the heap to mature, covering it to keep out rain. It is ready when it is deep brown, crumbly and sweet-smelling.
If it still smells rotten, wait a bit longer before harvesting.
Your compost may go through stages of decomposition as the seasons change. Too little moisture in summer will slow down the composting process and too much in the rainy seasons will create a slimy mess.
When turning your heap, check its moisture levels too – it should look damp, but not wet, all the way through.
If it is too dry, add some water. If it is too wet, add dry materials such as cardboard or household dust to balance things out.
In warm conditions, your compost could be ready to go in two to four months but a small amount will take less time than a heap piled high. It will also depend on the kinds of materials you have added – bulkier items can take as much as a year to decompose fully but it will be worth the wait.
Composting can really kick your garden into the next gear, supporting plants with free, nutrient-rich soil that will reduce pest problems and support healthy growth. And it keeps all that waste out of your bins. So it’s win-win.