Composting. It’s easy!
What is composting?
Composting is the recycling of kitchen and garden waste
to produce a soil like material that is rich in minerals
and nutrients. It can then be put back into the earth
to feed the soil and make the garden grow better. Any
natural product such as fruit, vegetables, wood &
wool will slowly rot and decompose over time and composting
is a way of speeding the process up by using the right
mixture of materials. It is made by a hundreds of different
organisms, including bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects
eating away at it over a period of time. Sounds gruesome
but what remains after these organisms break down the
organic materials, is the rich, earthy substance your
garden will love. Composting is nature's natural way of
breaking down materials, be it on the forest floor or
in your compost bin.
Why compost?
There are lots of good reasons to compost -
It will dramatically reduce the size of the rubbish bag
you leave out for the bin man each week
It reduces the amount of household waste being sent to
landfill sites
Which in turn cuts down on pollution
It will stop your kitchen bin from smelling
You’ll have a constant supply of quality, healthy,
chemical free fertiliser for your garden and plants. Give
it to your friends if you don’t need it!
It will save you money by not having to fork out for fertilisers
anymore
It helps protect our beautiful peat bogs. Many commercial
composts are made from peat, which is naturally occurring
and extremely rich in nutrients for plants and soil. However,
peat bogs are thousands of years old and provide natural
habitats that are even rarer than the tropical rainforest.
As such peatbogs are considered a protected environment.
How to Compost
You can be as lazy or as active as you like. The more
you manage your compost the faster you’ll produce
compost ready to be used in the garden. If you take the
passive approach where you slowly and steadily add waste
to a pile you’ll still see results but they’re
likely to be in a year or two. Either way, it ends up
the same! Anything natural that will rot & decompose
will compost. Grass, trees, vegetables, fruit peel, brown
paper and even the dust in your hoover can go on the pile.
The easiest and most common way is ‘cool composting’.
First you need to get a compost bin or site set up in
your garden. Find a nice sunny spot with plenty of heat
and light and place your heap or bin on a patch of soil
or concrete (preferably soil but concrete’s just
as good - worms and insects will always manage to find
it!). Start adding your compostables - it is best to use
a mixture of ingredients to get a balance of dry &
wet but don’t worry if this sounds daunting, it will
come in time and with experience. Here’s a helpful
outline -
BULK & BALANCE
Raw fruit & vegetable scraps, tea bags, old flowers,
soft prunings, weeds, straw & hay
HOUSEHOLD ROTTERS
Egg boxes, cardboard, paper bags, kitchen roll & serviettes
HOT ROTTERS (these work to ‘activate’ the compost
process and get it started)
Weeds, grass cuttings, comfrey leaves, nettles and urine
(dilute 1:4)
SLOW ROTTERS (will decay over a long time)
Autumn leaves, wood chipping, woody prunings. Older and
often therefore, tougher material takes longer to decay
but gives the compost a good quality. Wood decays very
slowly and is best chopped or shredded.
BEST AVOIDED
Cooked food, meat, poultry & fish (raw or cooked),
dairy products, bread
NO NO’S
Coal ash, dog poop, nappies, cat litter and glossy magazines
After about 6-9 months the bottom of your compost pile
will have turned into a lovely rich soil like substance.
Remove it from the compost bin and either bag it or use
it in the garden straight away.
Have fun but beware - composting is addictive!
There are plenty of great composting sites on the links
page.
