TLDR: Composting transforms garden and kitchen waste into a rich growing medium for plants. Recycling organic waste turns weeds and scraps into a wonderful rich organic soil that feeds flowers, fruit and veggies.

It’s very satisfying to grow things in home made compost, and it reduces the cost, hassle and environmental impact of buying compost or peat in plastic bags and transporting it to the garden.

I really do love our compost.

If you enjoy gardening, I heartily recommend that you set aside a little space and time to make your own compost .

The basics of composting

The basic rules of making compost are fairly simple. I’ve copied these brilliant guidelines from the US EPA, just in case they get ‘lost’ in future…

How we compost

Composting is fairly simple, but we have found that a few things do and do not work for us here in our middle sized garden in Somerset UK.

First up, our ‘problem weeds’ do not go into the compost. Bindweed and brambles do not go on the pile. They don’t compost well, and weeds may start growing in your compost, which is not desirable. We want a pile of pliable compost, not a mound of bindweed and bramble. (Photograph of the current pile of bindweed and bramble in our garden not included… ;-))

Composting takes time, which is why it can be useful to have a couple of compost piles on the go. We use a large three section compost bin. The first bin takes this year’s compost material – which includes veggie scraps from the kitchen and most of the weeds and clippings from the garden. The second bin is last year’s compost, which is now ready for use. We use the third bin for leaf mulch.

The compost bays seemed far too big when we put them in a few years ago. [And when I say ‘we’ I didn’t actually build them – I paid a professional gardener to to the job for us, and my lovely husband does most of the work turning and tending to the compost piles.] After a few years of use they’re getting fuller as our garden grows. If you have the space, go big with your compost.

No weeds please!

Problem weeds go into a separate garden waste bin, not our home compost pile. We do not compost bindweed, brambles sticks, spiky things, evergreen vegetation, or laurel leaves. None of these make good compost, they don’t break down easily and they seem to ‘clog up’ the compost pile. They’re collected by the council every couple of weeks for municipal scale composting, which can cope with with those big bad weeds. (Photograph of a recent pile of bindweed and bramble in our garden still not included… ;-))

We also do not compost any cooked food scraps, or meat or dairy, or bread or grain, or anything likely to appeal to foxes, mice or rats. We live in an edge of town setting with wildlife nearby and we don’t want to set up a feeding station for local mammals. That food waste goes into the council food waste bin, for municipal composting.

How is your food waste and garden waste processed? Is it collected for composting?

In our part of Somerset, food waste is collected weekly, and we also pay a subscription for the council to collect our garden waste each fortnight. It’s very useful for us to have other routes to recycle green waste, so we can be selective about what we do and don’t compost for our garden.

What does go into our compost is mostly soft green stuff from the kitchen and garden – weeds, hedge clippings, cabbage leaves, potato peelings, and soft brown stuff from the garden like dried leaves and little twigs. The resulting compost can be sieved into a fine compost that’s great for potting up plants or used as a chunkier mulch for garden veg and flowers.

The compost pile should be not too wet, not too dry, not too green and not too brown, and not too hot or cold.

If this sounds a bit tricky, don’t worry, it’s not.

It’s clear to see what’s working and what’s not composting so well. You’ll be able to tell when you need to add a bit more wet green stuff or a bit more dry brown stuff to get the right kind of mixture for your compost.

Magic microorganisms

In optimal conditions, microorganisms can break down organic material remarkably fast. The worms and bugs will digest and excrete all that delicious vegetable waste to create the most amazing, rich organic matter which will help to nourish your garden as it grows.

It may take a bit of time to find the right balance for your setting, to match your kitchen and garden routine. If you don’t cook from scratch you might not have lots of cabbage stalks and potato peelings, and if you only have a little garden you may not have a lot of room or many garden clippings.

Just a few little bins with lids with a few houseplant clippings and apple cores can serve as a compost system. All you need to to is mix up green and brown organic waste, make sure its not too wet, and leave those amazing microorganisms to work their magic.

Your flowers fruits and veggies will benefit from all that lovely homemade compost, and I think they’ll taste a little sweeter. 🙂

Have you enjoyed adventures in compost? Drop a comment if you’d like to share the compost joy. (Comments from new visitors are pre-moderated so may take a few days to appear.)

J x