Composting

Compost heaps are the ideal way to provide all the growing medium you will ever need and to use a lot of garden waste to create the circle of life by taking dead and dying waste and giving it a new life and refreshing old compost as this is merely spent as all its nutrients are depleted and composting creates new nutrients.

Back to Basics

There ae four main elements to composting and these are Greens – Browns – Air – and water; these are the four elements you need to make your own compost and we will identify the basic elements individually.

Greens – These contain higher levels of nitrogen and will add this to your compost and these include grass cuttings, cut vegetation such as the tops of plants and weeds, kitchen scraps, tea leaves and coffee grounds.
Remember to cut the seeds from weeds to prevent them growing in your compost heap and you can usually get coffee grounds from coffee shops for free and recycling it helps these businesses meet recycling targets, or just for good publicity for their customers and it saves them paying for disposal which is always a benefit to business.

Browns – These contain higher carbon contents and this content is included in your compost mix and include leaves, hedge trimmings, wood chippings or sawdust, paper and cardboard as well as any other woody material, but avoid large chunks of wood such as thick branches or tree trunks. Spent compost would be classed as browns.

Your objective should be to mix these in equal parts to get a 50:50 mix of greens and browns and you need sufficient airflow inside your compost heap for the reaction to take place as this is basically combustion and any airflow aids smouldering, and this smouldering takes place at low temperatures and will not ignite wooden frames. If possible you should locate your new compost heap on the ground or soil as the composting process produces certain brown liquids which seep directly into the soil and they are an excellent feed feeding under and around your compost heap while allowing all those nice worms into the heap and worms are needed. This smouldering is needed to keep the microbes in a warm environment and the hotter it is the quicker the microbes eat through the waste and create the humus.

If you have a small garden or limited space you can use a plastic composting bin and if possible it is best to avoid man made composting chemical products as with the correct knowledge you can turbocharge the process and this knowledge will be forthcoming so you can make natural compost quicker than using man made products.

To build your heap you need some sort of containment and if you use old pallets you can strip them for the boards and work from there, make two sides by putting on flat boards with a gap the thickness of a board inbetween them so you get the required airflow, put these sides to the ground and hammer the bottoms in. Do the front and back in exactly the same way by screwing on flat boards while leaving the thickness of a board between them and ensure you have sufficient room to get a fork in to turn the mixture.
To make your heap you need to create airflow so you begin with woody and coarse material such as woody hedge trimmings or twigs as by their very nature they are coarse and open and open means air, so build this first layer onto the ground, you build your next layer from greens and if you keep a separate bin for kitchen scraps you can also add these, but be careful as some things absorb water and sag You can also compost egg shells and many similar things and these encourage air into your new compost heap; and if you are short of browns you can save bags of shredded printer paper from your printer or simply old letters.

If you use a composting container due to lack of space or not having sufficient garden space due to other things then dig a piece of good garden and add this to your compost heap after breaking it down by hand and ensuring you have worms in it, and now you will have introduced worms to your compost heap. The larger the worms, and the more of them you have the better your compost is and will be.

Now we go to the activators which are manure, animal droppings, coffee grounds, and yes human wee, if you have small animals such as guinea pigs or rabbits and you use straw bedding you use this as it is animal droppings and straw which is hollow tubes and hollow tubes let air in. If you have a local farm or stables a couple of bags of muck will act as activators and if it has straw this would be even better. If you have a local farm and they have livestock they will have straw and often they will have a split bale which is past its best and beginning to break down and they usually let you have these for free and if you put a layer of this straw in the middle of your heap as it climbs you will have an instant air access into the middle.

If you have spent compost you simply bag this up and save it and you spread a layer of this out to balance your greens and browns and you compost your old compost and replace all those spent nutrients and give yourself new compost.

Why do you build your enclosure down to the floor when others suggest leaving a gap?
Because natural bacteria and small insects as well as worms will get in, but not hedgehogs, and if you turn your compost heap using a garden fork you may kill a hibernating hedgehog and I want mine alive because some of mine are semi tame, and numbers are declining due to losing their habitat.

You maintain moisture content to prevent it being too wet or too dry and you test by getting a hand full from your heap and squeezing it and if it feels wet but does not drip when you squeeze it you have it about right; if it is too dry you water it lightly and if in winter it gets too wet you cover it to prevent heavy winter rains from making it too wet and create sagging which prevents airflow.
If you have large pieces of cardboard or cardboard boxes that you can open up you cover your heap with these as they will hold off water and they will compost and actually insulate it to keep it warm.
If the rain is excessive you can cover your heap with old carpet and stick to natural materials and avoid man made materials if possible.

Every month you can turn an activated compost heap as this does two things, first it introduces new air into your compost heap to allow the microbes, bacteria and fungi to do their thing and break everything down and it allows your urine to cover the heap and accelerate the composting process. If you find it has sagged you basically re-layer it and if you add things such as straw and create a couple of new levels the additional air will help the composting process and deter sagging.

How long does it take to make your own compost? With an activated heap you can have compost in around 3-4 months if you turn it and urinate on it as this continues the acceleration process, forget the activation and it takes around 6-12 months to make a batch of compost and longer is better.
You will have good general purpose compost and if you have a garden sieve or riddle you can sieve your new compost and keep the fine compost for seeds and seedlings as it will have the same nutrition values but much less coarse material in it.

What about large plants or vegetable tops? Basically you chop them up into smaller pieces, or for the optimum you put them through a garden shredder and cut them into much smaller pieces so they break down quicker and as my indoor tomatoes are 6’/1.8M high they are big and go through the shredder.

What happens when my compost heap is full? Make another and run two compost heaps as many gardeners to this anyway as at times you get a lot of greens and at other times you get a lot of browns and having two compost heaps helps maintain the 50:50 ration of greens to browns.

Do compost heaps smell? Yes and no is the simple answer and the real answer is no if you get the balance of greens and browns correct and allow airflow into your compost heap and prevent it from becoming too wet and turning it to sludge, and at £5 per bag of compost if you buy it in bulk; you can save yourself a lot of money for very little effort. It is mainly no different to going out to the dustbin as you lift your carpet or dustbin lid, drop your kitchen waste into your dustbin or onto your compost heap, and either the dustmen come and take it, or you let it become compost and the only difference is turning it once a month which takes minutes and if there is a shortage you won’t be affected and can use what you have made and laugh at those being hit hard in their wallets due to these shortages.
Can you store it? Of course you can and of you have an old dustbin or similar then filling this up means you have a dustbin full of compost and if you don’t have a dustbin you can use old compost bags or just black bags to store it; or become a little more ingenious and use old heavy duty bags such as the used plastic builders bags of sand or ballast. Having a stock of compost means you can sieve it out and make your own potting compost from the sieved, fine compost or merely have sufficient compost to pot things on or just top dress existing pots and containers or simply add to soil as a conditioner.

You will never get sufficient greens and browns at the same time so if you get an excess of greens or browns you store them until they are needed to keep the balance and when you get a surplus of greens you add a couple of bags of browns to balance it; if you get a lot of grass clippings you add them sparingly as add to many in too thick a layer and they create a mush.

Should a beginner try making compost? This would be a resounding yes as it is a beneficial product and if you garden you can add it to tubs and hanging baskets purely as a compost or dig it into any containers or raised beds as a soil conditioner or simply use it to replenish raised beds, or mulch or top dress with it. Best of all you are producing a natural product with only the additives you have introduced and saving yourself a fortune buying it.