Hints and Tips :: How to make perfect compost

divingbrit — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:29:59 GMT

Author: divingbrit
Subject: How to make perfect compost
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:29 pm (GMT 0)

Want to make perfect compost? then I advise that you start in the kitchen.

If you want top-grade compost, look to the kitchen for your recipe for success. Take proscribed amounts of certain ingredients, combine them in a particular way, cook for a certain amount of time at a recommended temperature and end up with something dark, crumbly and good enough to eat. Individual maxims for composting are as idiosyncratic as those for a tried-and-tested sponge cake: good gardeners know their tools as well as cooks know their batterie de cuisine.

The basic beginners' guide reads: take a layer of "green" nitrogenous material from your kitchen or garden (spent bedding plants, some veg peelings, a smattering of teabags, a few rhubarb leaves and a sprinkling of grass cuttings) and top with a layer of "brown" carbon-rich roughage: shredded paper, a few egg boxes, a pinch of untreated sawdust and a little moistened cardboard, and leave to cook.

It's a question of balance: too much green and the airless mixture turns slimy; too much brown and the mass stays unchanged. Cover and the mixture is too dry, leave uncovered and the result is sodden. There is also a list of "red" prohibited materials that encourage rodents, spread plant disease, prevent decomposition or are anti-social.

My own bill of fare involves layers of kitchen and garden waste loosely sandwiched between lawn mowings and chicken bedding (my secret ingredient � mixed manure, feathers and shredded, moistened newspaper) piled weekly as they are discarded, and left to their own devices in a series of metre-cubed open bays until ready � usually within a year.

Fallen leaves go in separate bays for leaf mould. My compost beds are in an open sunny spot with easy access, and used in rotation. There is always a heap ready and probably half a dozen in various stages of decomposition. I don't turn my heaps � too much like hard work � but left to the elements, it just takes time and space.

By Francine Raymond
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Hints and Tips :: How to make perfect compost