Composting Your Waste Away
With the cost of waste removal, there is one very obvious reason for composting your garden waste on-site: it saves you money. If the prospect of composting fills you with dread, it needn’t. Tedious and lengthy descriptions of ‘How to Make the Perfect Compost’ have frightened people away, but there are really two ways to look at compost. The first way is to regard it as a useful and easy way of getting rid of stuff. If you have grass trimmings, leaves from trees, foliage and flowers cut back in the autumn, and even kitchen waste, it can all go into the compost. If you have a large garden and no shortage of space, it is certainly much easier. The compost heap can essentially be no more than a pile where you dump these things. You can improve on this by retaining the sides. A number of materials are useful for this, such as old wooden palettes or chicken wire and bamboo – these both allow the heap to ’breathe’
Ideally, material added to the compost heap is applied in layers, and you should aim to have diversity in its contents. For example, too much grass will make it go slimy, whereas too many leaves will hardly break down at all. During the summer, when there is liable to be more grass clippings than usual, add in some old cardboard or newspaper, roughly torn up. What you are aiming for is for the heap to constantly be reducing its size as material breaks down. The material at the bottom of the heap should look something like soil.
For those with less space – say in an urban or suburban garden – it can be trickier, and there is a perception that compost heaps attract rats. Some of the commercially available plastic compost bins aim to speed up the composting process, but space in them can be limited. If you are nervous about rats, simply ensure that no cooked food gets into it, and avoid bread, meat or any other cooked food scraps. For those determined to find a use for their waste, a wormery is also an option. The three or four levels of this plastic device contain food at different stages of decay which is broken down by a large community of worms. Worm ‘casts’, and a liquid are the end products, which can be used in the garden.
For those who are more dedicated to their gardens, the compost heap is a whole lot more than a handy way of getting rid of stuff. The compost it provides is a valuable ingredient in healthy soils. What is taken away one year, in the form of leaves, flowers or fruit, is given back the next. Compost is often used as a ‘top-dressing’. In other words, it is applied onto the soil, between or around plants. A good time of the year to do this is during the winter, before plants come very far out of the ground. Compost adds nutrients to the soil and helps suppress weeds. More importantly, though, it helps the soil’s structure. Structure describes the general condition of the soil: its ability to retain moisture and nutrients, as well as its looseness, which obviously enables root growth and encourages healthier plants.
TOP TIPS FOR YOUR COMPOST HEAP
1 Have a good mix of materials, from nitrogen-rich material such as grass clippings to carbon-rich materials such as leaves and cardboard.
2 If you have the space, have a compost heap with slatted sides made of old palettes or chicken wire and bamboo.
3 If you are generating a lot of garden waste, have at least two compost heaps which you rotate on an annual basis.
4 Avoid cooked foods, meat, cheese and bread: these can attract rats.
5 Modern ‘compostible’ nappies are NOT suitable for domestic compost heaps.
6 One of the best ‘starters’ (ie something that helps with the breakdown of material) is urine – so make that trip out to the compost hea whenever you can!
7 Make sure that compost is properly broken down before you spread it in your garden.
8 Seaweed, if you can get it, is great in a compost heap. Mixed with leaves and grass, and left for up to a year, it produces great compost.
9 If you want to add wood ash to you compost heap, do so sparingly: it can cause alkalinity, which is not suitable for many plants.
10 Be careful about adding weeds or weed roots. If you need to get rid of noxious weeds (eg bindweed or sctuch grass) tie them up in a black plastic bag for a few months, and then add them to the compost.
Ideally, material added to the compost heap is applied in layers, and you should aim to have diversity in its contents. For example, too much grass will make it go slimy, whereas too many leaves will hardly break down at all. During the summer, when there is liable to be more grass clippings than usual, add in some old cardboard or newspaper, roughly torn up. What you are aiming for is for the heap to constantly be reducing its size as material breaks down. The material at the bottom of the heap should look something like soil.
For those with less space – say in an urban or suburban garden – it can be trickier, and there is a perception that compost heaps attract rats. Some of the commercially available plastic compost bins aim to speed up the composting process, but space in them can be limited. If you are nervous about rats, simply ensure that no cooked food gets into it, and avoid bread, meat or any other cooked food scraps. For those determined to find a use for their waste, a wormery is also an option. The three or four levels of this plastic device contain food at different stages of decay which is broken down by a large community of worms. Worm ‘casts’, and a liquid are the end products, which can be used in the garden.
For those who are more dedicated to their gardens, the compost heap is a whole lot more than a handy way of getting rid of stuff. The compost it provides is a valuable ingredient in healthy soils. What is taken away one year, in the form of leaves, flowers or fruit, is given back the next. Compost is often used as a ‘top-dressing’. In other words, it is applied onto the soil, between or around plants. A good time of the year to do this is during the winter, before plants come very far out of the ground. Compost adds nutrients to the soil and helps suppress weeds. More importantly, though, it helps the soil’s structure. Structure describes the general condition of the soil: its ability to retain moisture and nutrients, as well as its looseness, which obviously enables root growth and encourages healthier plants.
TOP TIPS FOR YOUR COMPOST HEAP
1 Have a good mix of materials, from nitrogen-rich material such as grass clippings to carbon-rich materials such as leaves and cardboard.
2 If you have the space, have a compost heap with slatted sides made of old palettes or chicken wire and bamboo.
3 If you are generating a lot of garden waste, have at least two compost heaps which you rotate on an annual basis.
4 Avoid cooked foods, meat, cheese and bread: these can attract rats.
5 Modern ‘compostible’ nappies are NOT suitable for domestic compost heaps.
6 One of the best ‘starters’ (ie something that helps with the breakdown of material) is urine – so make that trip out to the compost hea whenever you can!
7 Make sure that compost is properly broken down before you spread it in your garden.
8 Seaweed, if you can get it, is great in a compost heap. Mixed with leaves and grass, and left for up to a year, it produces great compost.
9 If you want to add wood ash to you compost heap, do so sparingly: it can cause alkalinity, which is not suitable for many plants.
10 Be careful about adding weeds or weed roots. If you need to get rid of noxious weeds (eg bindweed or sctuch grass) tie them up in a black plastic bag for a few months, and then add them to the compost.