Composting

Compost is a rich, dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling substance. It is made of recycled garden and kitchen waste.

Did you know that you can also use paper products (shredded or torn into tiny pieces) in your compost?

It can be used to feed and condition the soil and to make potting mixes.

Did you know that around 40 per cent of the average dustbin contents are suitable for home-composting? Can you imagine how much it helps cut down on landfill?

Many people mistakenly think that making compost is difficult and tricky, and there's an art to it! But in all honestly, all you need is to provide the right ingredients and let mother nature do the rest.

To make fabulous compost though, a little bit of knowledge wouldn't go astray. Here are a few tips to get you started.

* Anything that was once living will compost, but some items are best avoided. Meat, dairy and cooked food can attract vermin and should not be home-composted.

* Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as 'activators', getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess.

* Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.

* For best results, use a mixture of types of ingredient. The right balance is something learnt by experience, but a rough guide is to use equal amounts by volume of greens and browns (see below).

GREENS (or nitrogen rich ingredients)

Urine (diluted with water 20:1)
Comfrey leaves
Nettles
Grass cuttings

Other green materials

Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen
Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds
Young green weed growth – avoid weeds with seeds
Soft green prunings
Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses
Poultry manure and bedding

BROWNS (or carbon rich ingredients) Slow to rot

Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes
Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste
Cardboard tubes
Glossy magazines – although it is better for the environment to pass them on to your local doctors’ or dentists' surgery or send them for recycling
Newspaper – although it is better for the environment to send your newspapers for recycling
Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs – hay, straw, shredded paper, wood shavings
Tough hedge clippings
Woody prunings
Old bedding plants
Bracken
Sawdust
Wood shavings
Fallen leaves can be composted but the best use of them is to make leafmould

Other compostible items

Wood ash, in moderation
Hair, nail clippings
Egg shells (crushed)
Natural fibres eg. 100% wool or cotton

Do NOT compost

Meat
Fish
Cooked food
Coal & coke ash
Cat litter
Dog faeces
Disposable nappies

Hope this helps some of the newbie composters!