From garden (and kitchen) waste to garden use – now’s the time to get composting!
1st Mar 2023
Home composting is not only a fantastic way to benefit the garden, but a great way to help do your bit for the environment.
It’s an easy and natural process, creating nutrient-rich food for the soil, as well as recycling garden and kitchen waste.
And every type of soil can benefit from the addition of compost.
What to compost
Compost is the product created when organic material is allowed to decompose, breaking down over time.
This composting material should be a mix of soft ‘green’ and woody ‘brown’ types, and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) advises a balance of 25-50% green stuff. Picking the materials is where recycling really comes in, because it’s not only garden waste that goes onto the compost heap but those kitchen scraps that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
Green materials are needed to provide nitrogen and moisture, and are quick to decompose.
Examples of green materials: grass clippings, hedge trimmings, cut flowers, vegetable kitchen waste, coffee grounds and tea leaves, weeds, animal manure, house plants and cut flowers
Brown materials are needed to provide carbon and fibre, and to enable air pockets to form, and are slower to decay.
Suitable brown materials include: dead leaves, prunings, Christmas trees, natural corks, tomato plants, egg shells, hair, straw, wood chippings, paper and cardboard
It’s important to ensure that there’s not too much of one type of either a green or brown material. This is particularly important with grass clippings, and which can become slimy and start to smell if too top-heavy component-wise.
Knowing what not to compost is also important. This list contains items such as bones, bread, cat litter, cling film, dairy products, meat and fish scraps, dog faeces and plastic bags and bottles.
Shropshire Council has an extensive list of material dos and don’ts.
How to compost
Home composting can be as simple as creating a compost heap of the relevant green and brown material. It needs to be turned from time to time, to add air, and which is vital to the composting process. The RHS advises doing this about once a month.
It can take from six months to two years to produce compost, but the processing time can be shortened through using a composting bin or special container. This also has the benefit of keeping the composting pile neater, and can help with preventing the unwarranted attention of rats …
The compost in a container should still be turned, and advice is every three to four days – and to make that process as easy as possible, many people invest in a compost tumbler. These tumblers speed up the composting process even further, with compost ready within 6-8 weeks.
Draper’s department lead for gardening, Simon Cottingham, is a passionate gardener. He says: “I used to have a fixed plastic composter, but it wasn't very good. It used to take years for the compost to break down, as it wasn't possible to turn it.
“So, I thought I'd try a tumbler instead. It took about an hour to set up, is extremely robust, and very easy to rotate. After using it for a couple of months I could see that it was composting much quicker than my old bin, despite it being winter. I was really impressed, and very pleased I decided to upgrade to a tumbler.”
According to the RHS, “Mature compost will be dark brown, with a crumbly soil-like texture and a smell resembling damp woodland.”
Using compost
Compost improves the soil’s condition – and all your plants and flowers will thank you!
You can use compost on flowerbeds, in borders, around trees and in your pots and patio containers, in your herb garden and vegetable plots – it’s particularly good for crops of carrots and potatoes. You can also use it on your lawn, making it look greener and healthier all round as well as helping young grass to take root.
And you can use your compost at home in the garden, or on the allotment if you have one.
Why compost
Home composting is easy, improves the soil, and saves money and resources.
Channelling food waste away from landfill – and even from utilising council collection services – reduces carbon footprint.
Eco Experts posted a blog at the end of last year with the following statistics:
The UK throws away 9.52 million tonnes of food per year, and which creates 25 million tonnes of CO2e – more than Kenya’s total annual CO2 emission figure.
Not all food waste can be used for composting but using scraps that are suitable will certainly help the environment. Recycle Now reports that nearly half the food waste found in the average rubbish bin could have been composted.
Steve Remnant, from Draper’s hand and garden tools department: “Surely there is nothing more satisfying than taking garden and domestic waste and seeing its compost potential to add growth and life to the garden, rather than letting it simply go to waste!”
