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Making Your Own Compost is Heaps of Fun!

From Prince Charles, to the local allotment society - everyone is doing it. Making your own compost is the latest craze to sweep the UK, as gardeners catch the grow-your-own bug while embracing the recycling message.

If you have been considering having a go at making your own compost Westland has some good advice.

Home composting is a vital part of a healthy garden, or allotment. You can recycle vast amounts of waste that would otherwise end up as landfill, and create a sustainable supply of rich, organic matter to enrich your soil.

But, to some gardeners, the secrets of perfect compost are on a par with nuclear fusion. Ratios of carbon and nitrogen; plus what you can and can't compost, leave gardeners as cold as a badly- tended heap.

Westland's Make Your Own Compost takes the guesswork out of a perfect bin, producing a rich, organic compost in as little as eight weeks. The pack is a mixture of naturally-occurring microbes, that are first rate composters, combined with an organic feed source to help them perform quickly and efficiently to make top quality home compost for your garden.

Westland's technical director Dr Jamie Robinson said: "Many gardeners see composting as complicated and their own poor results can back this up. This formula will guarantee fast and excellent."

The formula will turn a stagnant pile of waste into a dynamic hot heap as the microbes feed on the waste, rapidly multiplying and generating heat. It will also achieve temperatures hot enough to kill off most weed seeds and pathogens.

Every kit comes with a FREE book, Guide to Compost and Home Composting. The attractive manual tackles all the common composting problems and is guaranteed to drive sales in this booming market. Make Your Own Compost is available from garden centres priced £4.99 for 31⁄2kg and £7.99 for 71⁄2kg. For more details visit www.gardenhealth.com or call 028 8772 7500.

Composting Advice:

Good to Compost

• Garden waste including grass clippings, leaves, prunings, weeds, spent flowers and old bedding plants
• Pet bedding eg rabbits, hamsters and gerbils (vegetarian pets only)
• Cardboard including toilet rolls and egg boxes
• Kitchen waste including vegetable and fruit peelings (uncooked), egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds

Things to Avoid

• Prickles, spines and thorns - they can persist in the compost
• Perennial weeds and weeds that are flowering, or roots of weeds such as couch grass and bindweed as these can survive in a slow heap and help spread the problem around the garden
• Large amounts of newspaper should be recycled: small quantities can be composted
• Uncooked meat, fish and eggs, cheese and fat scraps and all cooked food - these can attract flies and vermin, which in turn can spread disease
• Diseased plants and leaves - the diseases may persist after
  composting a reoccur

Never Compost

• Cat and dog waste - it can spread disease
• Disposable nappies and any sort of plastic - they won't break down
• Ash from coal fires - it may contain toxins
• Plant material that has been treated with weed or moss killer, these chemicals may persist and affect your border plants
• Glossy magazines - the inks may be toxic
• Fat and oil - these will not break down

© Reckless Gardener Magazine 2005 - 2006 Mill Cottage New Media