Compost

Compost is rotted down garden waste. It is made with a compost heap. It is useful for two reasons. First of all, you dispose of stuff you don't want, such as weeds, plants that have been harvested, or died down, and vegetable waste from cooking. Then, once it is rotted down, you can spread it round the garden to provide nutrients and structure in the soil. A win-win situation!

A compost heap requires some room, and you can have a garden without one. But if you don't have your own compost heap, please dispose of your garden waste in the green bin, not the normal waste bin. If garden waste goes to landfill, it still rots down, but produces methane, a bad greenhouse gas, plus the result doesn't get used. Anything in the green bin gets dealt with by the council in a similar way to compost, and does get used.

A compost heap can be just a heap of garden waste. However, a simple heap tends to be quite flat, and doesn't compost well round the edges or on top (which is most of it). You can also have a compost heap piled up against a wall, which is better. But my compost heap is made using a special kit. This is just planks of woods, with notches in, which slot into each other. At the start, I use just a few, then add more as the heap gets bigger. This gives a good sized heap in a neat shape, which seems to compost fairly well. As you use it, you remove planks to get at the compost. You may notice that I have a couple of metal stakes at one side. I have a sloping garden, and this is to stop the compost heap sliding onto the path!

Add any plant or vegetable matter that you don't want on the compost heap. I've been told that you shouldn't have any meat products such as bones, because this encourages rats (they can go in the green bin OK). We have a small bin in our kitchen for cooking waste to go on the compost heap, which we empty every few days. This has things like banana peel or onion skins. Lawn mowings also go on the heap. At certain times of year there is a lot for the compost heap, and it gets quite large, but it reduces in volume as it rots. A good compost heap is neither too wet, or too dry. This system of slotted planks gives some ventilation, but not too much. A good mix of what you put on the heap also helps to keep the moisture level right.

Some people say that you shouldn't put any weeds on the compost heap, to stop spreading them later, by seed or by roots. That is going too far, I think! But I do try to keep the bindweed and ground elder roots out of the compost heap, as it's so annoying to see them cheerfully growing inside the heap. It's also annoying to have to pick them out of the compost before spreading. So they go in the green bin instead.

A heap will need quite a bit of time to rot down. I tend to start a new heap each year, in the autumn, because that is the length of time it seems to take. There is a bit of overlap until I have spread last year's compost. In fact, the start of this year's heap tends to be the top few inches of last year's heap, which hasn't rotted yet.

When spreading compost, once you've removed the unrotted stuff from the top, you get down to the compost itself. The "good stuff" is almost like soil, black and rich looking, and probably with worms in! There is also likely to be some dried up vegetation, especially round the edge, which can still be spread on the vegetable garden, and seems to disappear. I don't know what happens to it! Perhaps the worms carry on breaking it down, or maybe the birds use it for nests. Finally, there are lumps of root or thick stems, which are really no good. I try to remember to split them before putting them on the heap in the first place. Thick branches may need to be burnt, or used as supports in needed. Going through the compost heap is a good way to work out what you shouldn't have put there in the first place.

I spread compost on the roses, the fruit trees and bushes, and everything else goes on the vegetable garden. It's a small garden, so I don't need a wheel barrow. I just pick up a load of compost on a fork, walk to were I need it, and drop it into position.

Last year's heaps, one in use

This year's new heap

Spread compost

Compost next to rhubarb

Click on photos for large version.