No matter what kind of garden you have, so long as soil features somewhere in the layout, there’s one essential feature that you can’t possibly do without, and that’s a compost heap.
The archetypal garden compost heap - big and steamy.
There are some pretty compelling reasons why every garden and gardener should get with the compost. Firstly it considerably reduces the amount of waste that your friendly bin-men have to cart off to the landfill site, and almost completely eliminates the organic part of that waste. This is crucial because, whilst plastics make up the largest bulk of landfill, it’s the rotting organic stuff that gives off substantial volumes of greenhouse gas in the form of methane.
Secondly having a well-managed compost area will provide you with an ongoing supply of lovely crumbly goodness to put back into your garden.
This will in turn feed and enrich your soil as well as improve its texture and quality, particularly if you garden on sandy or clay soils.
Of course self-produced compost also reduces or, if you really go for it, completely removes the need to buy in expensive (and often environmentally suspect) composts. Many small to medium sized gardens are somewhat over-managed, with fallen leaves and green waste whisked away ASAP in a bid to keep things neat and tidy…. which is fine, but if you then throw those leaves away then you’re breaking the natural cycle of decay and rejuvenation of the soil. Solving two problems with one solution, home composting makes common sense really, and is perhaps the ultimate in local recycling.
One of the other beauties is that composters do far more than digest fallen leaves; indeed leaves on their own tend not to produce very good compost. Aside from hefty chunks of wood pretty much any vegetable derived material can and should be composted. So we’re talking about lawn mowings and kitchen scraps like veg peelings, which are pretty obvious candidates perhaps, but also tissue, newspaper and cardboard along with all plant prunings and cut-down herbaceous material from the course of the year. It’s a good idea to keep something like a hessian sack to hand to collect all of your composting material ready for the heap. The only things you can’t effectively compost are animal derived materials, aside from egg shells – so no bones, meat leftovers or animal waste.
The process that miraculously transforms so much waste into wonderful, rich dark compost is aerobic digestion. Bacteria, munch their way through your cast offs feeding on carbon and nitrogen whilst using oxygen and water to fuel their feast. All four of these elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water) are needed for the decomposition process to work properly.
Wire compost bin - Simple but effective.
Different types of material contribute different elements to the compost. Grass clippings and kitchen waste provide nitrogen, whilst newspaper and fallen leaves provide carbon, so it’s important to layer the different types of material as you add to your composter – alternate clippings, say, with newspaper, or autumn leaves with kitchen waste etc.
As for the composters themselves, there are, of course, a variety of plastic Dalek-alikes readily available, but it’s much cheaper, and certainly not rocket science to make your own.
Pallet composter, with carpet roof for insulation.
For the smallest gardens a simple upright ring of heavy-duty meshed chicken wire will do the job, although they can also be insulated with old carpet for warmer, faster results.
Alternatively bang four posts into the ground and attach fencing or wood pallets onto all four sides, to create a box unit.
The front panel needs to be open-able or removable for access and turning of the compost, but otherwise you can use this basic principle to build to any scale that you want.
For the largest gardens with the greatest compost input/output then a series of two or three wooden panel bins (ideally with wire sides to allow for good oxygenation) will work best.
The grandaddy of composters - the 3-bin.
In this system you move and turn the compost from one bin into it’s neighbour every 3 to 6 months allowing for a succession of compost at different stages of completion.
Composters should be kept moist but never allowed to get truly wet. In summer, in particular, it pays to keep an eye on your compost and water it if it seems to be on the dry side whilst in winter, when the composting process slows down considerably, you might need to cover with sheeting to prevent water-logging. Turning your compost regularly will allow for good oxygenation and mixing of materials and will considerably speed up the whole composting process.
The Wormery - an earthworm hotel.
There is a tendency to tuck compost heaps and bins into the farthest, darkest and gloomiest reaches of the garden, but the microbes that are doing all the hard work also need warmth – the warmer the site the faster the composting process – so try to situate somewhere that receives at least a little sunlight and consider insulating with carpet.
Another great option is the wormery. Wormeries are small-scale enclosed box structures, generally made of wood, which serve and board and lodgings for an extended family of gardeners-best-friends.
The worms rapidly digest all of the same materials that would be suitable for composting and the end product is leachate, an extremely powerful and useful liquid fertiliser, along with small volumes of very high quality worm-cast compost.
Tags: Compost, Garden, Gardening, Hessian Sack, Nutrients, Plants, Wormeries, Wormery
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[...] Compost should be very free draining. Seeds germinate very well in pure perlite, vermiculite, fine grit or coarse sand, although they will need to be moved on whilst still very young before they exhaust their in-built food supply. A 50/50 mixture of any of those same materials with a good compost is ideal and will allow the seedlings to stay in their nursery a good deal longer. Scattering to sow medium/fine seed. [...]
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