Home > A closer look at Composting

We've recently started to compost. A 300L compost bin arrived via our local council at a subsidised price, but unfortuantly it took 2 months to arrive. We bought a kitchen compost caddy, which is essentially a small plastic bin which you fill up with waste from the kitchen, such as tea bags, egg shells, coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit peelings and old apple cores etc. Of course, don't put cooked food in, especially meat items, as this will attract rodents. A filtered lid helps to keep the smell in the caddy.

The caddy fills quicker than you expect, which shows at least less is going to landfill. If you're a gardener, then garden waste can also be added to your bin/heap, such as grass cuttings together with a small amount of shredded paper if you like, soft clippings (avoid evergreens), leafy weeds (try not to add the roots - especially from pernicous weeds like bindweed, couch grass or creeping buttercup), leafmould but not fresh leaves, and wooden prunings (in small amounts) can be added if shredded.

If you keep pets, then straw bedding and also their manure can be added (but only if they are vegetarian, like guinea pigs). No dog or cat litter. Listening to the Welsh allotment chap featured on Jeremy Vines Radio Two programme the other day, apparently horse manure can also be layered into your compost to give it extra oomph!

Compost care means never letting it dry out, so always keep the lid on, but not letting it get too wet, so be prepared to add some dry ingredients if this is the case. Also mix and turn the compost every now and then to encourage it to break down well.

The downside is that the rotting process takes 9-12 months before rich, black compost emerges and can be used. However, you can buy a liquid compost accelerator which when added to the compost speeds up the whole process into weeks rather than months. Or you can buy worms online to add to your compost heap which shortens the time it takes to decompose and areates the pile more efficiently.

Or, if you prefer you can can buy a properly tiered wormery which is another source of speedy compost and to which you can add meat and cooked food also.

A composting factsheet can be downloaded at www.sepa.org.uk/compost

To find out where you can buy composters, wormeries or kitchen caddies online visit our shopping / garden section.

 

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