What Goes Into Making Compost? What can you put in composting bins?

Making compost is simple really it is just about adding the right things onto the heap and then waiting for them to rot down. Making the ingredients on the compost heap or in the bin turn into usable compost faster is just a skill that is easy to learn.

Making good compost for the garden is not difficult.

The process of composting is a natural one; if you leave a piece of fruit and forget about it what happens?

It decays and rots down. Most natural things do this, some take longer to 'decompose/rot ' down than others. (One difference between a over ripe tomato and a egg shell rotting down is the length of time they take to decompose.)

Like a lot of things to do with growing and gardening some people will tell you there is only one way to achieve the goal. In this case converting waste items into compost that you can use in the flower garden or on the vegetable plot. I think it suits some folk to make a great mystery out of simple processes.

Making compost is simpler than following a cooking recipe. You can vary the ingredients when you make compost without risk of a disaster and most of the time you can just let it sit there getting on with the process by itself. Remember that you can always make adjustments to your compost heap to get it back on track. If you have a few minor problems with the process the chances are simple adjustments like adding water or cardboard or turning the heap over with a fork will work.

Kitchen waste...

These things can go in to your kitchen caddy and then be put onto your compost heap...

• Tea bags and coffee grounds
• All vegetable peelings and waste e.g trimmings of vegetables,
• Banana skins, apple peel, orange peel etc.

This means all vegetables and fruit that are no longer edible, apple cores,banana peel, tops of carrots etc.

But add nothing that is diseased because you do not want to spread problems to your vegetable patch.

• Kitchen paper towel (that is has not been used for meat or has had 'chemicals' on it).
• Pet animal bedding( used hay) from rabbits and guinea pigs...

Rabbit and guinea pig 'poop' will be very good for your compost heap and the urine on the hay is useful in the process of composting as is the hay.

Note: Do not add their dried waste food to the heap for the reason stated below.

Items that should not go onto the compost heap -

Do not add foods that will attract scavenging vermin such as rats and mice -

• these foods include things such as cooked foods, meat, cheese.
• I would not add persistent weeds such as bindweed that spread through their root system, or any weeds that have seeds on them. Things like chickweed seem to rot down fairly quickly. If in doubt with weeds I do not compost them.

An ideal composting heap would reach a temperature that would kill off the weeds - but not all compost heaps manage to achieve this temperature as this will depend on the size of the heap as well as its contents as well the ambient temperature which will vary with location and time of year.

I would not compost contents from the vacuum cleaner but some people do.

Some people add hair cuttings and pet hair but I do not.

* When deciding the type of composter to use if you are going to be using it in your yard or garden - it might be better to select one that vermin such as rats and mice would have difficulty in gaining access to. There is nothing so off putting in your attempts at composting as finding you have acquired 'unwanted guests' close to the house.

Greens and Browns explained..

Here is a list of greens and browns that can go into making compost...

The Browns

• Fallen leaves
• Hay & straw
• Ripped up cardboard, brown paper.
• Paper bags, kitchen towels

The Greens

• Vegetable & fruit waste
• Eggshell
• Coffee grounds, filters, & teabags
• Horse, cow, rabbit, chicken, gerbil, goat, sheep, rabbit, pig manure
• Weeds without weed seeds
• Grass cuttings but not if you use chemicals on grass ( and not too many at once they can slow down the heap)

Do not try to compost :

• Meat fish, bones
• Fats, Dairy products
• cat and dog waste
• Plants with diseases (never compost the foliage of potatoes or tomatoes that have suffered from blight.)
• Weeds with seeds
• Perennial or pernicious weeds such as bindweed.

If you wish to 'compost' cooked foods you need to look into the Bokashi bin system which is a different style of dealing with waste food and turning it into usable compost.

Your compost heap needs four basic things to work :

the browns and greens that you are composting

+ air and water ( that means the right amount of moisture)

• You turn the heap to get air to it.
• You add water when it is too dry.

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What can you do if a compost heap is too wet?

Add materials like rip up brown cardboard boxes to it,and then give it a turn over with a garden fork.

Making the heap of compost rot down faster -

• The greens and browns are what you add to it you may need to adjust the amounts of each.
• Or/ Add heat to the heap, make it heat up,either by making it larger, covering it in some way. or by adding manure to it.
• If you can construct the heap all in one go i.e have enough materials it will heat up faster.

There are various techniques that have been developed to speed up the composting process but to start with it is best not to complicate making the heap, just make a start on it.

No. You do not need to spend money on expensive bins to produce usable compost from the simple things that at present you probably throw away in your household waste.

You might want to buy a nice looking bin, and there are many different compost systems. If the compost maker is going to be in a place that you see it you might prefer to buy one that you like the look of. 

 You can make compost by cheaper ways if you want to from containers that you build yourself. Home composting can begin with a simple self built storage area or compost maker you have purchased. Compost makers/ people who make compost- often have different ideas about what are the best compost systems.

Do special bins make compost quicker? Some do.. some do not. Air is an important part of the composting process so a bin that turns the compost (compost tumblers) by an easy method or one that helps with air flow in the bin might speed up the process but so does turning it over regularly with a garden fork if it is just in an ordinary home made compost heap.

Do not get too hung up on this side of making compost eventually you will get to know what to do/add to the heap it is a skill you will acquire.

As you research for the ideal ratio of greens to browns for a compost heap you will find lots of conflicting advice about the 'perfect ratio'. My advice is just to go for a good mix of the two as in 'real life ' you do not want to be puzzling over what to add to the heap next. Once you have made a batch of compost the skill and knowledge you have gained helps to make the next heap a better one anyway.

A good ratio to try for is 3 parts browns to 1 part greens but 50/50 is OK. These are said to be ideal but if you cannot manage it you will still eventually get compost from your heap.

One of the most common mistakes is too pile too many grass clippings in at one time in the summer this is not a good idea.

3 to 1 ratio should speed up the workings of the heap and then it will decompose faster.

There are many different ways and methods of making compost the simplest is to build heaps of suitable waste from the 'greens' and 'browns' categories.

Some other ways to make compost from waste items are -

• Bokashi. Use the Bokashi method to compost waste food from the kitchen that is unsuitable for the regular compost heap. With this method you can put cooked food into the Bokashi bin. To read more on this method of using up waste food that cannot go onto the compost heap see the link to the page.
• Worm Composting. Many people find this method of making compost useful and it is an interesting process for children to see. This might be a good one for schools to use as a demonstration of using waste products to make something useful that can benefit the garden.

See the page links here for further information on these two methods of composting waste from the home and garden.

I do not use a Bokashi bin .... we do not waste enough 'prepared food etc' to warrant the purchase of one (actually you need to buy two) and the bran you have to buy to add to it. However if you waste a lot of cooked food in your kitchen you might want to consider purchasing them.