Composting is great because it is fairly simple and is a direct way that we can have a beneficial effect on the environment.

On the one side, we are rapidly running out of landfill space and soon organic materials will be banned from landfill sites altogether. On the other, these materials are too good to be thrown away and the most responsible thing to do is to treat them as a useful product rather than a waste. If you need any other reasons: it can be a community building enterprise; it can teach your children about the world in their back garden; and it can be a source of worms if you are feeling very hungry.

Put simply, what we are doing by starting a compost heap is like creating an incubator for all the helpful bugs in our garden. So we need to ensure that we keep them happy.

So, there are only really two things to remember about composting. First, keep it aerated. The bugs need to breathe, so make sure there is lots of air mixed in. The two ways of doing this are ‘turning’ and ‘adding big bits’. Turning is the technical term for mixing with a fork. Adding big bits is the technical term for adding big bits (sticks/logs). These will take a long time to disintegrate, but at the same time will allow the air to get to the rest of your compost.

Second is a bit more technical. The bugs need the right balance of carbon and nitrogen. ‘Urrgggghhhhh…’ I hear you cry, ‘I hate chemistry’. So this is all you need to know: brown things have lots of carbon and green things have lots of nitrogen. If you have too many green things in your compost bin, it will go manky. So for every handful of grass, vegetable peelings or green leaves that you bung into the compost bin, try to put some cardboard (torn into little pieces), card egg box, thin sticks chopped up finely, dust from the vacuum cleaner or a bit of newspaper. Garden composting is an inexact science, but if you are using a lot of fruit, all grass clippings, have lots of flies, or it is all looking chocolate brown and slimy, you need more carbon.

Then, probably a couple of times a year, you will end up with nice, crumbly, dark compost to spread on your prize geraniums. There are other things that can be done if you do not have space for a large composting bin, by the way.

Almost the whole known world will be falling over themselves to tell you about home composting. Local councils love it (it saves them a whole lot of trouble) so a good place to start is to talk to your local recycling officer and/or look at their website. You might even be able to buy a nice shiny plastic composting bin at a special knockdown price (depending on where you live).

Otherwise, the Henry Doubleday Research Association give good general composting hints.

If you are really keen, my friend Nicky Scott has produced a very readable booklet called ‘Composting for All’ published by Greenbooks for a few pounds.

Composting from Generous on Vimeo.

Flickr photo source