Give Composting a Shot This Summer

Posted on 20/10/2020

How To Make A Compost At Home

Creating your own compost pile in the backyard is a great idea. That way you will have a source of organic material to enrich the soil and aid your gardening efforts significantly. Nutrient-rich compost has an amazing effect on plants and their healthy growth.

Another notable benefit of composting is controlling household waste and reducing the volume of rubbish disposal significantly. Did you know that around 30% of your waste can in fact be composted? The process doesn’t cost anything and naturally transforms garden waste and kitchen leftovers into food for your garden plants. That is an eco-friendly process of waste disposal, which doesn’t put any stress on the environment. If it is something you have never considered before, you should definitely try it out this summer! Here is how to get started:

- Build a compost heap - one of the best ways to build your own compost heap is to acquire recycled wood pieces. You can ask your neighbours and get a hold of such items from their rubbish removal pile. Pallets work great - simply form a square and fasten the corners with a string, or nail them. Don’t forget that at some point you will have to remove at least one of the sides, so make that easily accessible.

- Buy a compost bin - a lot of stores offer ready solutions, in case you are not feeling particularly handy in creating your own. Ideally you want a compost bin made of slatted, recycled wood, which enables wildlife to enter and exit. It is best if you pick one made out of sustainable timber.

- Add brown and green material to the heap - a recipe for success when it comes to composting is mixing these two types of waste. Alternating layers of green material, which is rich in nitrogen, and brown material, which is rich in carbon makes for a quick and effective composting. Green means the result of your garden clearance efforts, such as grass clippings and weeds, while brown features dried grass, sticks, shredded cardboard and paper.

- Shred before composting - any material you put on the compost pile should be properly shredded first. That is an important step to effectively composting, which you should bear in mind. The better you shred the material, the more (and faster) it rots. This in turn means less trouble with weeds.

- Don’t compost meat - if you feel like the meat you are about to discard in the rubbish removal bin is an ok inclusion to your compost pile, think again. The main issue with that is the problem with rodent pests. Other than meat, you should also avoid discarding leftover cooked food, pet waste and dairy products.

- Keep the compost moist - keyword: moist, not sodden. You have to wet the heap from time to time, but don’t water it excessively. In fact, it is a good idea to prevent rainwater from accessing it by spreading a cover over it.

- Turn the compost - in order to make the decomposition process quicker, you should turn the compost every once in a while. Use a fork for this task but be careful - often times wildlife is present so don’t just jab mindlessly and try to preserve the animals that visit the heap.

These are all the steps you need to follow to make a compost heap you can work with reasonably quickly. Make use of your garden waste removal material and see the great effect compost has on your lawn and plants.