Composting
Whether you grow flowers, vegetables or both, compost is vital to the health of your garden so composting all your waste from the garden and kitchen is vital. There are 2 main ways of composting material for use in your garden, and I don’t really think it matters which you choose. They are:
- A traditional compost heap
- A hot bin
As I’m writing this in fact I am using both a traditional compost heap and a hot bin to create my compost. The hot bin is new but I’ll update on how that compares next month.
What is Compost ?
Composting is an aerobic method (meaning that it requires the presence of air) of decomposing organic solid wastes. It can therefore be used to recycle organic material. The process involves decomposition of organic material into a humus-like material, known as compost, which is a good fertilizer for plants.Compost is decomposed organic material. Compost is made with material such as leaves, shredded twigs, and kitchen scraps from plants.
what can I compost
Just about any waste from the garden and kitchen but I do recommend that you cut everything up as the smaller the pieces, the quicker your compost will be created. I ise all the follwing in my compost:
- Egg shells ( crush them first )
- Egg boxes
- Loose tea
- Teabags ( warning some teabags contain plastic . I open them and throw away the bag )
- Stale or mouldy bread
- cardboard boxes ( vital if you are using a hot bin but useful also in a traditional compost heap )
- toilet roll inserts ( do tear them up first )
- Bills and other plain paper documents
- Business cards ( not the glossy ones )
- Grass clippings
- Paper rolls
- Plants from the garden once they are finnished
- cooked rice
- cooked potatoes
- cooked pasta
- coffee grounds
- wine corks ( not the plastic ones )
- potato peel
I could go on for ever here, but as you can see most organic things can be composted.
In my traditional compost heap I have been using the activator from Soilfixer. I can recommend this company without any hesitation, and no I don’t have any commercial ties with them. On the picture to the left here you can see the compost from last years heap.
Building your compost heap
Really a single compost heap is very hard work as the heap does need turning. If you have the space the 2 or ideally 3 are recommended so you can tip 
straight from one heap into another. Again, if your garden is large and you have lots of materials for composting then an open heap is fine. For most of us though we don’t have that much space so I really do urge you to make a proper bin of some sort ( wooden is ideal ) so that the heap is kept warm. You should also cover it to keep excess rain out. Your compost will be made much more quickly if you cut plants etc. into small pieces. Large plants will eventually rot down, but it will take much longer.