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Compost enriches the soil and helps retain water, and it is easy and inexpensive to make. All you have to do is put

all your kitchen and garden waste into a big pile, and keep it moist. After a minimum of three months, it may have broken down into compost. Use your compost as soon as it is ready – this is usually when the ingredients you have put in your container have turned into a dark brown/black, earthy smelling material (Fig 1).

Locate your compost heap on bare soil so that earthworms and micro-organisms can help break it down. Also, position it in a place that is sheltered from the wind so that it does not dry out. If it is in full sun, make sure to keep it watered and moist.

How to make compostAs well as kitchen and garden waste,you need air, heat and moisture. – Air: compost will not break down properly if there is no

air in the heap. To keep air in the compost heap make a layered compost heap as follows:

•Make a 15-20 cm layer of dry ‘brown’ material, such as dead plants, dry leaves, straw and cut-up sticks – this layer will have lots of spaces for air. •Next, make a 15-20 cm layer of soft, moist ‘green’ material, such as lawn trimmings, fallen green leaves, wet newspaper and kitchen waste. •Alternate brown and green layers until the compost heap is at least 1.2 m tall and 1.2 m wide. •Cover soil to keep heat in.• Put a stake into the compost heap to let air in.

Fig 1. The dark, rich colour of good quality compost.

– Heat: a hot compost heap breaks down more quickly, which is aided by micro-organisms. To warm up your compost heap:

• Add cow, goat, chicken, sheep, horse, donkey or bird manure.

• Don’t use human, dog or cat manure.• Add compost from an old heap.• Add plants such as comfrey leaves, seaweed and certain weeds, such as blackjacks (Bidens pilosa) and sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) before they get seeds.

– Moisture:• Keep the compost heap moist at all times as this assists with the decomposition process.

Compost materialDo use – All garden waste, such as grass cuttings, fallen leaves, pine

needles, soft hedge trimmings, twigs and weeds (but not weeds that have seeds on them). – All uncooked kitchen waste, such as fruit and vegetable

peelings, old rotten vegetables and fruit, eggshells, tea bags and coffee grounds (Fig 2). – Keep a small dustbin outside the kitchen door

especially for kitchen waste. – Manure from birds or plant-eating animals. – Hair from animals and humans. – All paper that breaks down, such as egg boxes, newspaper

and corrugated cardboard. Shred the newspaper first.

Fig 2. Add old rotten vegetables and fruit to your compost heap.

Don’t use – Meat and fish – Cooked food – Coal – Cat and dog faeces – Disposable nappies – Magazines.

By using compost as a mulch, you can reduce watering by up to 70%.

Make your own compost

A spadeful of good garden soil may contain more microscopic organisms than there are people on the earth.

Here’s how you as a gardener can keep this unseen world of organisms happy…

by making your own compost.