SUSTAINABILITY Make your own compost

Make your own black gold


Organic growing
Hans Wieland

When I arrived in Ireland in 1985 composting as part of recycling household and garden waste wasn’t a well established practice. People often dumped grass clippings or put kitchen waste into the refuse bin instead of composting. Over the past 25 years, people have realised the benefits of composting and there has been a huge turnaround.
Materials that can be composted account for as much as half of household waste. By making compost at home, in a community, at a school or in an allotment, you can have a major impact on waste reduction while also doing something good for the environment.
With renewed interest in growing vegetables, composting has become a valuable and cheap source of creating your own fertiliser – ‘black gold’ as some gardeners call it.
When deciding on a site for your compost container, bear in mind that it should be near to your home with easy access, and it should in a dry, free draining area of your garden in a site that isn’t shaded.
A wide range of compost containers are available on the market, or you can build your own with recycled pallets. A family of three to four people would need a compost bin with a capacity of around 300 litres.
When composting, divide your waste into ‘green’ and ‘brown’ categories, depending on its chemical make-up. Green waste would include grass cuttings, kitchen scraps (uncooked fruit and vegetable matter – no meat or cooked food), young weeds, poultry manure, comfrey leaves and seaweed. Brown waste includes egg shells, wood ash, untreated sawdust and wood shavings, small amounts of soil, shredded hedge clippings, autumn leaves, old plants, small quantities of shredded newspaper, straw and hay.
Ideally you want to achieve an equal balance of both by alternating layers of green and brown material 5-10 cm thick. If you struggle to gather enough brown material, gather a few sacks of autumn leaves and add to your heap throughout the year. Start your compost with a layer of brown material.
It is important that your compost is not too wet or too dry. Too much wet material will restrict the amount of air in the compost, slow up the process and lead to offensive odours. In Ireland, your container needs to be rain proof. If the compost is too dry the process will be very slow. Simply watering the compost should remedy this. Stick a garden fork into your compost bin every few weeks to loosen up its contents. This will allow air to circulate and speed up the process of making compost.
Ideally, you are aiming for a sweet-smelling, dark-brown, crumbly compost. Don’t be put off if there are a few woody branches or egg shells that are not fully decomposed.
Work the compost into your soil as a soil improver or use it as a 5cm mulch around plants to suppress weeds, improve the soil and retain moisture.