How to Compost - be a composter

Whether your back yard is the size of a postage stamp, or a football field, all gardens or yards benefit from a generous helping of food, and that is what compost is - food for your garden. Good compost not only nourishes your soil, but provides organic matter which improves the soil's structure and makes it easier to grow things.

You can improve your soil by buying proprietary compost from the garden centre, which will do the trick, but unless your budget is large, this is never going to be the solution for more than a few trays of seedlings and some pots for the patio. If you want decent amounts of compost - you need to make your own, in a do-it-yourself compost heap, or a proprietary compost bin, compost tumbler or other form of composter. 

The simplest and quickest way to start composting is to trot off and buy a compost bin. There are lots available on the high street and online, and local Councils often have discount schemes, selling composters at reduced prices.

However, since composting is first and foremost a bit of commitment on your part to reducing the amount of household waste that winds up unneccessarily on landfill sites, do try to find a bin made of recycled material. Better still, make your own. We made ours from four old fence panels, nailed togather into a box shape with uprights at each corner to give it a bit of stiffness. You could use pallets, old doors, in fact just about any sort of scrap wood will do, and as a bonus wood will work even better than your neighbour's bought plastic version because your contents will be able to 'breathe' properly.

If you are compost bin shopping think about the space you have both for the bin itself and in the garden. A large lawn generates a lot of grass clippings and composting can become quite addictive - you may want more than one!

For the impatient gardener bent on quick compost gratification a compost tumbler speeds things up without the need to dig and turn the heap, but is less good for a large quantity.  Incidentally we never dig or turn our compost - we're far too lazy.  Instead we have two heaps side by side - one 'active' to which our new scraps are added regularly, and one 'dormant' which will sleep for a year under its blanket of old hessian-backed carpet.  This covering allows moisture in and retains warmth - both helpful factors in a successful brew.

It doesn't have to be.

It's true, if you want to make a lifestyle change you need to try to make it as easy to make the change as to retain the status quo. So if the easy thing to do is to chuck your kitchen scraps in the bin, put a crock pot for scraps next to where you do the peeling so it is even easier to put them there. Or if you get through a lot of veg and don't want to be trotting out to the compost bin every two minutes, put a lidded bucket next to the bin for the scraps so you can empty every few days, without any extra hassle.

But doesn't composting stink? Not if you collect kitchen scraps in a crock and empty it regularly.  Make your outdoor compost area handy for the kitchen to encourage you to empty to crock.

If your gardening is reduced to little more than a window box, a large composter made of pallets may not be the solution for you. You can still recycle your kitchen waste in many areas, as Councils often offer a collection service.

An alternative solution for the space-challenged is a wormery. These take up much less room and offer a fantastic way of recycling your kitchen scaprs in a fraction of the space of a conventional composter. The idea seems to gross a few people out, but they don't smell and they produce a superb liquid fertiliser which your house plants and outdoor pots will thank you for.

Just take care of your little wiggly friends - changes of temperature or too much citrus can harm your invertebrate pals.

 Do compost:

• Kitchen scraps - e.g. veg and fruit peelings, banana skins, bread crusts
• Tea bags
• Coffee grounds
• Wood ash (occasionally)
• Human hair (yes really - that hairy gunk from your plug hole!)
• Eggshells (crushed up)
• Floor sweepings
• The contents of your vaccuum cleaner (unless its full of non organic waste like screws, glass, plastic etc)
• Grass clippings
• Used tissues
• Leaves
• Pine needles (not too many though, or you'll make the heap to acidic)

 Don't Add:

• Weed roots or seeds (you'll just end up spreading them round your garden for next year)
• Cooked meats, fat and bones (rubbish for compost, lovely for rats)
• Dog and cat poo
• Glossy magazines
• Thick woody branches
• Coal ashes (the chemicals will harm your compost)
• Diseased plants (you'll spread the disease)