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Hands holding compost. Tim Sandall

How to start composting at home

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Friday, 25 October 2024 at 12:50 pm

Learn how to compost at home, with the help of our simple, practical guide.

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Making your own compost is a great way of recycling green waste. You can make compost in all but the very smallest of spaces and there's nothing better than using your own homemade garden compost, knowing you're improving the health of your soil and providing a habitat for wildlife too.

Why compost?

Worms in the compost. Getty Images

Home composting saves you money and avoids the need to buy and transport compost, which reduces your carbon footprint. It can be tricky at times to get composting right. Compost heaps can become too wet or too dry, and sometimes materials don't rot down quickly enough. Follow our tips to avoid these issues and start making your own crumbly, rich compost at home:

How to compost at home

Compost in a wooden composter. Jason Ingram

1. Setting up a compost bin

The size of your composting bin, the mix of ingredients and frequency of turning all help determine the quality of your compost. Home-made compost heaps should be at least 1m x 1m to promote decomposition. Use timber boards for the sides to help retain heat. Plastic compost bins can smaller as they retain moisture and heat well. The first rule of composting is to make sure you can get to the bin easily so that you’ll use it regularly throughout the year.

2. What to put in your compost

Adding kitchen scraps to a compost heap. Tim Sandall

The best way to compost is to use a mix of ingredients in your bin or heap. Combine soft, leafy material, grass clippings and kitchen peelings (green waste) with chopped up woody matter, cardboard and shredded paper (brown waste) in a ratio of around 50:50 green to brown. This will maintain both moisture and aeration in the heap or bin, both of which are required for good decomposition. Fruit and vegetable peel, and produce that is beyond use, are valuable additions to compost. If you're putting in woody or semi-woody stems, chip them down with a shredder first if at all possible, or they will take forever to rot down.

3. What not to put into your compost

Don't add meat or fish (cooked or raw) to a standard compost bin or heap as it will be become rancid, resulting in harmful bacteria and attracting rats. Find out how to keep rats out of your compost bin.

4. Turning your compost

Mixing the contents of your compost bin will help speed up decomposition. Turn material as frequently as possible, from the sides of the heap or bin into the centre, where the temperature builds up to kill off many of the harmful bacteria. Although the health risks are relatively low, wearing gloves and a dust mask during the process of turning compost, will protect your hands and help to prevent breathing in airborne micro-organisms.

When is compost ready to use?

Hands holding compost. Tim Sandall

Compost should decompose in six months to a couple of years depending on the size and temperature of your compost bin or heap. Compost is ready to use when it looks dark and crumbly, and it should have a pleasant earthy smell.

Problem solving

Compost too dry - if your compost looks dry and fibrous, you may be adding brown waste and larger prunings without breaking them up sufficiently. Ensure that cardboard is ripped into smaller pieces and prunings are shredded before adding. Check the balance to make sure you are including enough green waste
Compost too wet - compost can become wet and smelly when too much green waste is added. Avoid this by keeping a good balance of ingredients and, if you notice the heap starting to get too wet, add more brown waste. You can go as high as 75 per cent brown waste to 25 per cent green waste, if necessary. Make sure that material is added in small amounts. Putting a large pile of grass clippings in the compost all in one go is more likely to cause problems, so reduce the amount or add in small portions along with brown waste
Compost not rotting down - if your compost is taking a long time to break down, check the ratio of brown to green waste, and turn the heap more regularly. This should help aerate the compost and speed up the process
Compost infested with flies - it’s natural to have fruit flies, fungus gnats and other small flies in compost. They're a key part of the ecosystem and provide food for other animals. Flies are more likely to multiply if the heap becomes too wet or has too much green waste. If you have a fly infestation, make sure you maintain a good balance of green to brown materials, and place a layer of cardboard or soil on top of the heap so the green waste is no longer as easily accessible to flies

How composting helps wildlife

Avoid turning the compost heap to avoid disturbing hibernating hedgehogs. Sarah Cuttle

Compost heaps attract a wide range of wildlife and using your homemade compost in the garden improves the biodiversity of your soil. From larger animals like hedgehogs, frogs and slow worms down to invertebrates such as millipedes, brandling or compost worms and the larvae of beneficial beetles, a healthy compost heap should support a whole ecosystem in your garden. Find out what wildlife Monty encounters in his compost heap.

Frequently asked questions

What is hot composting?

Hot composting is a method of making compost in a specially insulated bin that enables the compost to reach much higher temperatures. It produces compost much faster than ordinary home composting.

Buy hot composters from Hotbin

What is bokashi composting?

Bokashi composting uses special a special bran to ferment your food waste and transform it into compost. It can be done in a small space in the house and produces compost in less than half the time of conentional composting.

Buy bokashi composters from Wiggly Wigglers

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