Making and using compost
The finished product is rich, dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling. It is made of recycled garden and kitchen waste, and can also include paper and chipped wood products. It is used to feed and condition the soil and in making potting mixes. Usually around round 40 to 50 per cent of the average dustbin contents are suitable for home composting so it helps cut down on landfill too.
Composting is often considered to be difficult but all you need to do is provide the right ingredients and nature will do the rest.
1. Where do I make compost? 2. What can I compost? 3. How do I make the compost? 4. Is garden compost the same as bagged 'multipurpose' compost? 5. Will a compost heap breed pests? |
6. How can I stop Rats visiting and nesting in the compost heap? 7. Can I compost poisonous plants? 8. Why am I assailed by flying things when I open the lid? 9. Do I need to buy any special tools or chemicals to make compost? 10. There's a wasps nest in my bin - what shall I do? |
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Question One
Where do I make compost? |
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There are a variety of bins on the market but they are all just a container for the composting process. A bin is not strictly necessary : you can just build a heap and cover it over with some polythene or cardboard. However, bins do look neater and are easier to manage. You can build your own, or buy one from any number of suppliers, including from your local council Useful websites:
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Question Two
What can I compost? |  |
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Anything that was once living will compost, but some items are best avoided. Meat, dairy and cooked food can attract vermin and should not be home-composted.
For best results, use a mixture of types of ingredient. The right balance is something learnt by experience, but a rough guide is to use equal amounts by volume of greens and browns
Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as 'activators', getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess.
Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first. |
Green Waste (Nitrogen):
Other compostable items:
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Brown Waste: (Carbon : rots slowly)
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Meat
Fish
Cooked food
Coal & coke ash
Cat litter
Dog faeces
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Question Three
How do I make the compost? | You can make compost simply by adding compostable items to a compost heap when you feel like it. It will all compost eventually but may take a long time and if the mix is unbalanced, may not produce a very pleasant end product. With a little extra attention you could improve things dramatically. To make good compost you need a more or less equal amount of 'greens' and 'browns' by volume. You can also include small amounts of the 'other ingredients' listed in the What can I compost section. |
For a cold compost:
Try, if possible, to collect enough compost materials to make a layer of at least 30cm or more in the compost bin. Weed the garden, mow the lawn, empty the kitchen bucket! Mix in some straw, woody prunings, scrunched up cardboard It may help if you place a few woody plant stems or small twigs on the bottom first as this will improve the air circulation and drainage Continue to fill the container as and when you have ingredients. If most of what you compost is kitchen waste, mix it with egg boxes, etc., When the container is full - which it may never be as the contents will sink as it composts - or when you decide to, stop adding any more. Then either just leave it to finish composting (which could take up to a year) Remove the container from the material, or the material from the container ( whichever you find easiest). If the lower layers have composted, use this on the garden. Mix everything else together well. Add water if it is dry, or add dry material if it is soggy. Replace in the bin and leave to mature. |
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The Hotter Compost:
Gather enough material to fill your compost container at one go. Some of this may have been stored in a cool heap and have started to rot slightly. Make sure you have a mixture of soft and tough materials. Chop up tough items using shears, pruners, a sharp spade or a shredder Mix ingredients together as much as possible before adding to the container. In particular, mix items, such as grass mowings and any shredded paper, which tend to settle and exclude air, with more open items that tend to dry out. Fill the container, watering as you go. Within a few days, the heap is likely to get hot to the touch. When it begins to cool down, or a week or two later, turn the heap ( A rotation bin is usually the best investment). Remove everything from the container or lift the container off and mix it all up, trying to get the outside to the inside. Add water if it is dry, or dry material if it is soggy. Replace in the bin The heap may well heat up again; the new supply of air you have mixed in allows the fast acting aerobic microbes, ie those that need oxygen, to continue with their work. this phase can be repeated several more times if you have the energy, but the heating will be less and less. When it no longer heats up again, leave it undisturbed to finish composting. |
Combination of hot and Cold:
There is nothing wrong with doing a bit of both. Fill your heap as you create waste (as for the cold method), then turn it when you have time. This will help it heat up. You can turn it as much or as rarely as you please, the more often you turn the heap, the quicker your compost will be ready. You can always add Lime to each layer to speed the process up. |  |
When is it ready?
Compost can be made in as little as six to eight weeks, or, more usually, it can take a year or more.
In general, the more effort you put in, the quicker you will get compost.
When the ingredients you have put in your container have turned into a dark brown, earthy smelling material, the composting process is complete.
It is then best left for a month or two to 'mature' before it is used. Don't worry if your compost is not fine and crumbly. Even if it is lumpy, sticky or stringy, with bits of twig and eggshell still obvious, it is quite usable. It can be sieved before using if you prefer. Any large bits can be added back into your new compost heap.
Question Four
Is garden compost the same as bagged 'multipurpose' compost?
No. Sowing, potting and multipurpose composts that you buy in garden centres are mixtures of various materials such as shredded bark, sand, coir and fertilisers. These are used for raising seedlings and growing plants in pots.
Question Five Will a compost heap breed pests?Compost is made by a host of small and microscopic creatures. These are not pests and will not overrun your garden. Slugs are often found in compost heaps - some species feed on decaying organic matter and are a valuable part of the composting process. |  |
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Question Six How do I stop rats visiting and nesting in the compost heap?Rats may visit a compost heap if they are already present in the area but composting does not generally attract the rats in the first place. If rats or mice are nesting in your compost heap, this is a sign that the heap is too dry. |
Question Seven
Can I compost poisonous plants?
Yes. The toxins from rhubarb, yew, laurel and other poisonous plants are all broken down during the composting process and will not cause any damage to you or your garden.
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Question Eight Why am I assailed by flying things when I open the lid? These are part of the decomposition process but their numbers can be reduced by burying any fruit waste among other ingredients. Flies are also a sign that the compost is a little too wet or has too many 'green' ingredients. Make sure that the bin has a lid and add 'brown' ingredients such as straw, cardboard or paper to re-balance the heap. Mix it in well. |
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Question Nine Do I need to buy any special tools or chemicals to make compost? No. A shredder can be very useful where there is a lot of woody material to be composted, but it is not essential. Lime is really good at aiding the breakdown of all materials, but again is not essential. |
Question Ten
There's a wasps nest / ants nest in my bin - what shall I do?
There is no 'organic' way to get rid of wasps. However, they do not return to the same nest every year so the problem will be over when autumn comes. If you can, leave the wasps alone as they are useful predators for garden pests.
If they cannot be left (in a school garden, for example) then give us a call for advice and or help. To avoid the problem in future, make sure that your heap does not get too dry - make sure it has a lid and that the sides are solid, with no air gaps.
Ants do have some small part to play in the composting process but the presence of nests in the heap is a sign that it is too dry. Water it thoroughly, or, if some parts are wetter than others, give it a good mix or turn.
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Wasp
The pain of a wasp sting is caused by a toxic fluid containing a complex protein, which is injected through the needle like sting as it penetrates the victim. Individuals react differently to being stung by wasps; some are hardly affected whist others can suffer considerable pain and swelling. A few people are seriously allergic to wasp stings and in some cases if they don't get treatment, it can result in anaphylactic shock.
There are almost 300 species of wasps in the British Isles. Only the female wasp stings. Wasps do not die after stinging.
The common wasp makes her nest from chewed and pulped wood, resembling paper. Parasitic wasps do not build their own nest but use plants or maybe caterpillars etc. to host their eggs.
A single colony of wasps may be as large as 2,000 insects.
Wasp's are busy from July and early August they are bringing up and feeding larval wasps, chasing insects, and foraging for food and maintenance materials for the nest. So generally you are unlikely to be stung by a wasp until Autumn, unless you accidentally put your hand on one and they are defending themselves, or unless you disturb a wasps nest.
After that their job is (mainly) done and they start feeding for themselves on the food they collect, especially on ripe and fermenting fruit.
They will become more and more dependent on sweet foodstuffs and will aggressively seek it out. During this time they are more likely to sting if angered. Usually at this time of the year it will be getting hot and very crowded in the nest, the internal temperature of the nest is 5 - 10ºC above the outside temperature, so on a good summer day it can reach 25 – 30ºC inside the nest. The nest’s population will be at its highest. now is when they are most likely to sting humans, bad temper caused by the heat and overcrowding in the nest, and in a semi-drunken state, (from the rotten fruit etc.,) and in reaction to being obstructed for their quest to sweet food.
Although most people think of wasps as pests, they benefit mankind and the environment in many ways. They help control arthropod pests by preying on them. This helps to cut down on the use pesticides. The benefits to humans far outweigh the harm which they do.
