Make Your Own Garden Gold

The greenest thing a food gardener can do (apart from planting the green stuff) is to make compost. It ticks each box for all the four ‘R’s’: Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose and Reduce.

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

All the garden and organic household waste (scraps, paper, cardboard, dog hair) that would have gone to the landfill goes into the compost. Then there is the fifth ‘R’, Regenerate, which is the effect that compost has on the soil.

Compost is not only free nutrition, it is the easiest and cheapest way to condition the soil, improve drainage and aid water retention.

Anyone with a garden, even just a few pots, can make compost. The method you use depends on space and affordability.

TRADITIONAL COMPOST HEAP

This is the most cost-effective option but needs space. It is suitable for gardens where the heap can be placed out of sight, usually at the bottom of the garden. The site needs to be level and on soil so that the earthworms can do their work. Start with a layer of sticks or small branches (for drainage) and build it up in layers of brown material (leaves, paper, cardboard) for carbon and green (vegetable scraps, grass cuttings, prunings) for nitrogen. A layer of manure every now and then acts as a compost activator. Turn regularly to aerate and don’t go much higher than 1.5m.

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