Composting the Environmentally Friendly Way
Home composting is the most environmentally friendly way of dealing with your garden and kitchen waste. It also produces a great soil improver for your garden… and keeps you fit turning the heap!
Setting Up For medium or large sized gardens, chose a shady corner that’s easily accessible with a wheel barrow or machinery. Set out to build at least three bins next to each other, no smaller than 1m x 1m x 600mm high – if you think you need bigger bins, then build to whatever size you require – you ALWAYS end up needing bigger compost bins in my experience!
Get Composting! Before you start, decide which bin you will load first as this will be the start of your turning system. Composting materials can be grouped into GREEN and BROWN types. GREEN includes grass clippings, kitchen waste, weeds etc and BROWN includes woody prunings (preferably shredded), wood chippings, card or paper. These should be added to the compost heap at a ratio of about 50:50 and should be loaded in layers to help mix the types.
Once the first bin gets full, simply turn it into the second bin. If possible, get an old piece of carpet or rug to cover the second heap to help it cook – heat and air from turning will greatly accelerate the composting process.
One final turn into the end bin should be sufficient to produce a great quality soil conditioner. It normally takes between one to two years to complete the process but adding a compost accelerator helps speed things up.
Take a look at our recent blog on mulching here.
