Ok, so you won’t have it ready for several months but making your own compost is a nice activity to do and gives you somewhere to put all of your garden waste, if your garden bin isn’t being collected at the moment.
Here are our top tips for making compost:
1. Use old wood, crates, pallets or even broken fence panels to section off an area. You can always use a proper composter if you have access to one. Start it on the bare earth though, this allows good drainage.
2. Add food peelings, teabags, egg boxes, egg shells and fallen leaves and other garden waste as these will create important air pockets. Top it with your grass cuttings, which will help to keep it warm.
3. You need the right carbon & nitrogen balance (it is suggested you have 1/3 green waste e.g. grass cuttings, food waste and 2/3 brown waste e.g. branches, dried leaves, coffee grounds).
4. Cover it over to help keep it warm. It’s important to keep it moist too, but don’t over water it. You’ll want to fork it through every couple of weeks to aerate it.
5. It’s ready once the bottom turns dark brown and has the consistency of soil.
Some important things to remember:
It’s important not to add things like meat, dairy or animal bones to your compost pile. You also shouldn’t add any animal waste. You should also avoid using any weeds that have gone to seed or any diseased or insect infected plants.
Be careful of animals getting in to the pile too. Check before you fork it through.
There are a few ways to accelerate your compost, these include coffee grounds, nettles and … urine! You might want to consider your environment before you do this though!
These of course are just the basics for getting started. You might want to get some more in-depth advice as you go on to ensure you are composting the right things and keeping it at the right temperature and level of moisture.
Good luck!
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