Home-made compost is invaluable in the garden/allotment – it is a great soil improver, mulch and growing medium.
To make good compost, you need a 50:50 mix of materials that are rich in nitrogen and carbon. Nitrogen comes from lush, green material such as grass clippings. Carbon comes from brown material, such as woody stems and cardboard.
For every bucket load of green material, you need to add the same volume of brown. Shred woody stems before adding them so that they break down more easily. Crumpled paper and leave egg boxes or loo rolls intact – these help to keep the compost aerated. Most compost bins have too much nitrogen, especially if the main source is from grass cuttings – the result is smelly sludge. If you have too much carbon in your bin, the composting process will be very slow. Here are the steps to creating great compost. You will need…
A sunny corner of the garden or allotment. An equal mix of nitrogen- and carbon-rich waste.
Compost bin
Stand your compost bin directly on the soil – worms and other micro-organisms will speed up the composting process. Chicken wire at the base will keep rodents out. Add an equal mix of green and brown materials (see our guide below).
Speed up the process by turning your heap occasionally with a garden fork to aerate it, mixing the outside ingredients to the inside.
When the mixture turns brown and crumbly and slightly sweet smelling, the process is complete. This will take around six months if the heap has been turned regularly, but can take much longer.
What to add to your compost bin – and what to leave out What to Add… Nitrogen-rich waste (green):
• Grass clippings
• Annual weeds
• Fruit and vegetable peelings/ trimmings
• Carrot tops
• Nettle leaves or Comfrey leaves
• Rhubarb leaves
• Bedding Plants
• Young soft hedge clippings
Carbon-rich waste (brown):
• Prunings & Shreded-up woody stems.
• Hedge trimmings
• Paper or newspaper (loosely scrunched up is best)
• Cardboard
• Straw/Hay
• Sawdust
• Paper Kitchen towels
• Paper bags
• Cereal boxes
• Loo roll middles
• Hair
• Tea leaves & bags, Coffee grounds.
Also add:
• Eggshells, natural fibres (wool or cotton), wood ash (not too much), Strawy Horse Manure.
Air and water are essential for the creatures that are doing the composting. Air is trapped in the heap as you build it. Water is present in sappy young plant growth, but more may need to be added to dry materials.
The final ingredients = the many creatures that do the work, they arrive of their own accord.
Don’t add:
• Diseased plants
• Perennial weeds…couch grass, dandelions, thistles etc.
• Cooked food
• Citrus (slow to rot and very acidic, which reduces worm activity)
• Raw meat or fish scraps
• Bones
• Dairy products
• Gloss or colour-printed paper
• Cat or dog faeces (poo)
Autumn leaves – these are best used to make leaf mould. Collect the leaves, put in black plastic bag, tied up. Make holes is the bag and put in an out of the way place leaving them to break down.