How to make your own compost
Why compost?
If you're planning on growing your own fruit and vegetables compost is pretty much essential. It adds nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Good compost will also add trace minerals like iron, boron, calcium as well as bacteria, fungus and other creatures that are important for healthy nutrient rich soil.
By making your own you save money on shop bought compost and bin charges. It's incredibly green. Why send useful organic matter to landfill? It's a really simple and effective form of recycling that will benefit you and your garden.
What do I need to start composting?
Ideally you need a compost bin. You can just start a pile but a bin or a container is the most effective method. You can buy compost bins from your local hardware or DIY store. They are pretty reasonably priced and will last a long time. Or you could try and build your own. Dru Marsh's election poster compost bin is a great example of recycling. Dru also helped me build a compost bin out of old pallets.
Try and position your bin in sunny spot far away from the house. Compost will attract insects and sometimes vermin. It needs to be to placed on soil rather than concrete. This allows insects and microbes from the soil to do their stuff.
Once you have your bin sorted you just need to start filling it.
What can I put in my compost?
Do put in...
- Kitchen waste (uncooked)
- Old fruit
- Vegetable Peelings
- Garden waste such as trimmings and flowers
- Weeds (Don't put roots or any plant that's gone to seed)
- Tea bags
- Coffee Grinds
- Crushed Eggs shells
- The contents of your hover bag
- Wood ash (sparingly)
- Paper - tissue and newspaper. Make sure you rip up any newspaper.
- Leaves (sparingly)
- Grass clippings (sparingly - too much will produce a smelly and slimy mess)
- Manure - chicken, duck, pig etcSeaweed - with salt rinsed off
- Straw
- Hair from plug holes and brushes
- Even nail clippings
Don't Put in...
- Meat or fish
- Bones and fat
- Cooked Kitchen waste (like the two above will attact vermin)
- Branches
- Weed roots and seeds
- Dog/cat poo
- Coal ash
- Dairy products
- Any waxy paper such as glossy magazines
How to compost?
OK so you have the bin ready now you just need to add your waste.
- It's best to add stuff in layers if you can. A layer of peelings followed by a layer of newspaper etc...
- Try not to add too much of one thing. It will unbalance the heap. You'll need to turn it with a fork about once a week. The more you turn the quicker the process. Your basically letting oxygen into mix.
- Try to get a brown to green waste ratio of 4:1. Browns are your papers, straws and cardboard. People often find it hard to achieve this ratio, usually having more green waste than brown. My advice is to hoard newspapers, bring them home from work, steal from friends!. I'm lucky enough to have access to lots of straw which helps with my brown quota.
- Add a shovel full of compost or soil to help get things started. Or you could also use urine or manure.
How long will it take to Compost?
This will depend on keeping the moisture level right. It needs to be moist - not too wet or dry. Too wet and not enough oxygen can get in - your heap will have gone what's called anaerobic. Too dry and not a lot will happen. You will get compost eventually but it will take ages!
Done correctly it will take anything from 3 months to 18 months depending on how you look after it.
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