We all know that recycling is important and particularly so since some of us now only have fortnightly bin collections. Home composting is the most environmentally friendly way of dealing with Your garden waste plant material. Composting can be fun and easy and you do not need a huge garden to accommodate a garden composter. So how do you get started?
Choose the location for your garden composter bearing in mind that an earth base under the composter allows drainage and access to soil organisms. Composters come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes but the wooden garden composters are perhaps the best to use. The wood provides insulation and allows the compost to breath. Build your garden composter, place it on the bare soil and then get recycling.
Garden Composting here are some Do's & Don'ts
Composters, like us, benefit from a balanced diet. You can feed it with garden refuse as well as kitchen waste and below you will find a list of some 'do's and don'ts'.
Do compost:
Uncooked vegetable & fruit scraps
Tea bags and coffee grounds
Old flowers
Gerbil, hamster & rabbit bedding
Soft prunings
Perennial weeds
Vegetable plant remains
Don't compost:
Meat & fish
Dairy products
Cooked food
Coal ash
Cat/dog litter
The composting process requires air and in an ideal world we should add all our compost at once and then turn periodically to let the air through. However, most of us accumulate waste gradually and therefore add it to the composter in layers. This build up of layers can cause compaction and the decomposition of the waste becomes less efficient and therefore slower. Turning your compost is labour intensive but speeds up the process.
Finally, if your heap is predominantly green material add straw, paper or shredded woodchip which will help break it down. Have a look at www.click4garden.co.uk for more composting advice as well as a range of garden composters and become greener today!