the joy of compost is one contains waste
material anyways even other people's
waste material into something immensely
beneficial to soil and all our plants in
the garden so even the winter we can be
making nice compost let's have a look at
what ingredients are good to add to the
compost heap and how one can improve
them by how you look after your compost
heap and what the results might be I
have here a selection of ingredients
things you can compost and I'll just
show you some to give you some ideas a
bit so for example here we have waste
from the kitchen in the house and this
was we had a coarse day yesterday so
it's bits and bobs of vegetables that
stuff with pruning and trimming leeks
mix of parsnip and here's something that
confuses people a bit because there's
rumors that you can't compost citrus
well you can actually possibly something
to worry about is if you non-organic
ones that might have a bit of wax on the
peel and rule even those actually I have
composted before different times able to
sit here in me and collecting so amazing
they like a sort of alchemical process
that degrades pretty well everything
actually so all of this can go on is a
bit of an egg box there that's good
and then here's something from the house
oh by the way this is probably more
green than brown it's good to have in
mind what's green and what's thrown
here's something that's definitely brown
that's wood ash and you could put that
in here you could put that on on the
garden but actually does contain soluble
potash and I find it works well to put
it in the compost heap then that turns
into a nutrient insoluble form and so
that becomes good compost ingredient
that balances other things as well in
the heap now here's something that's
definitely more Brown than green so
that's actually just one stalk of a
savoy cabbage which I chopped up and
it's up at the same time and if possible
it's good to do that
too hard woody in woody logic
ingredients and that means you've got
more surface for bacteria to enter and
help to degrade it'll break down more
quickly and also you less likely to
encounter an annoying large woody stalk
which you'll need you would then need to
recycle into the next composite and
here's an example taking that one step
further so I actually bought a shredder
last year after 30 years of saying I
wouldn't I decided well I'd like to get
more with the ingredients and into my
heaps and also to compost more stuff
basically so having the shredder has
enabled me to for example this was a
stem of a semi woody stem of alder which
I'd cut from my garden hedge and able
through the shredder to put that because
the shredder turns into an ingredient
which is compostable more by both
cutting and breaking it up the trellis
the shredder struggles a bit with more
green wood like this was a bit of willow
stem and it hasn't got enough really for
it to get hold of shredders of I think
are more suitable for if you've got a
lot of woody ingredients that you're not
sure what to do is and might be thinking
of a bonfire well in that case a
shredder will help you turn them into
compost and here we have a nice example
of things that are not what they seem or
not all of them anyway this one
particularly that oh it looks like
compost is actually coffee grounds so
this is some coffee that I secured when
I'm delivering vegetables to the local
restaurant they are very happy to give
me this coffee grant and coffee is not
compost it's actually this is a green
ingredient in in terms of category
because it's quite high nitrogen I think
it's something like 3% nitrogen and it's
also you'll sometimes see said that
coffee grounds are acidic they're
actually not with pH is around six point
eight on average
so that's fine that's not going to cause
any problems anyway but it is good to
compost and thinker in terms of green so
it's going a bit like going leaves you
know in terms of what is going to do for
your composter it'll break down very
nicely and add lots of goodness rather
like here's another green obviously this
is green because you see it's green but
this is a broccoli leaf which I took off
the plant this morning
good thing to do actually because as
they start to go yellow they're not
contributing anything to the plant for
photosynthesis and they're probably
going to fall on the ground and then
you'll get slugs involved so they're
good to take off the plant at that stage
of the life and add to your compost heap
and here's something which is actually
green and pranced so this is a bit of a
weed a bit of grass we didn't want in
the where it was going last week and
it's got some brown on which is the soil
so soil is brown whereas the leaves are
green search if you put if you could
pretty well make a compost heap of
ingredients like that because they've
got some green and some brown that's
good and also this one has a nice root
of couse gosh and this is perfect to be
able to show you because it's often said
that you shouldn't compost roots of
perennial weeds Planitia perennial weeds
like couch grass because it's thought or
said that they will grow again like you
can see the Sun is trying to grow at
this very moment it's sending out a new
and shoot of white roots which will turn
into a white leaf and as it grows I find
that in a heap where one is continually
adding things rather than just leaving
it for six months nothing's happening in
which case this would regrow but in a
normal heap I would say normal to most
Gardens roots like this will just be
smothered before they can regrow and
they are not indestructible
they are destructible it will decompose
and degrade so you can put roots like
this and bindweed roots I put on my
compost heap doc roots a lot of things
that want to suppose not to sometimes
yes they will break down and add
goodness to your heap so they along with
many other things are suitable
for compost heat in a reasonable balance
of green and brand roughly half enough
this is the current heap at homemakers
so its first ingredients went in in
November it's now February so three
months of all the waste from my 3/4 acre
garden in the winter so that's the big
difference
winter compost heaps are receiving less
because things are growing less but also
they're receiving the balance is
different it's more brown and less green
which means brown paper would ease stuff
stems is brown and green is leafy stuff
so if I just take this off that screwed
in on it I've unscrewed it and we can
see very nicely the series of breakdown
at the bottom is more decomposed already
there's a few worms they're retreating
they don't like daylight the ones and in
fact at this stage of the composting
process there are not many worms
happening doing much they come in later
on as the material is more broken down
and they finish the digestion composting
process and it's their cast actually
which is some of the best compost you
can make so you can see I've been
putting in quite a bit of straw I get
straw all straw from the neighbor who
happens to have quite a lot so for me
that's a youthful Brown ingredient and
there would have been some grass mummies
in here as well so that's green and
brown as we go up and unity is more or
less led but I'm not deliberately going
out to make precise layers you know it's
just putting in a bit of this and a bit
of that as we go and then because we
recently mowed the grass here rather
bizarrely in February because it's been
mild that push the temperature up so
that's what happens when you put more
green and you get hotter how much heat
does one meet well you can make compost
not hot you can make cool compost that's
not problem about doing that so heat is
not a prerequisite for making compost
but if you do get heat it will happen
more
because that's the main difference and
at the moment that temperature is
actually reading sixty degrees
centigrade which is good heat for
compost it's enough to kill weed seeds
and most pathogens but it's not too hot
so it doesn't kill beneficial microbes
if you aim for between 55 and 70
centigrade that's a good level of heat
how does one know when a heap is
finished or when you move on to the next
one well you can go on a long time if
you haven't got a lot of ingredients to
add at any one time you can keep on
going up and in fact is worth in that
case having a smaller bay or even want
to be in closed containers you can buy
which have hatches at the bottom doors
that you can pull out the compost from
below while you're still adding
ingredients from above here at
homemakers 3/4 acre garden so I have a
large heap and it's five by four roughly
feet this will make about a ton of
compost and I'm going to stop adding to
it very soon because it won't be long
for we have a lot of new additions and
that will merit
starting a new heat so then I will need
this heap here fermenting away with no
new additions for about one month or two
maybe see what happens and then we shall
turn it into an empty Bay next to it in
terms of in containers again options
here this is an interesting one because
last summer a neighbor was having some
bricks delivered for a patio and they
arrived in this container and we went
and scratched it basically so it was a
ready-made for me compost container
perfect and also a firmer we made a bit
of compost in a different heat in
another part of the garden and just
recently I've moved that it was rather
rough and ready compost and chopped it
up a bit and put it in here so that was
like a turning process which introduced
new air said the bacteria and got them
all working again so what's in here is
eight months old compost and I put a
polythene sheet over the top because
that keeps the rain out and this is
quite a critical part of the processes
getting the moisture level right in some
parts of the world where it doesn't rain
as much as here maybe you don't need a
cover but then you actually might need a
cover to keep the moisture in what you
want is compost that is moist but not
wet if it's too wet the excess moisture
excludes air that is probably the most
critical ingredient that is often
missing or not often but missing too
often and you can check for moisture
level by squeezing your compost like I'm
there and I can't get any moisture out
which is brilliant because 2 drops is
maximum that one wants to see when doing
this little check here and I would say
that that is good moisture level because
you can see it it's holding together but
it's clearly not got any spare moisture
now down here I have some other compost
which is on the edge of a heap just up
there which has allowed the rain to get
in and it looks wetter to me so I'm just
going to squeeze it and see if moisture
comes out and well that's very
interesting actually I kind of I'm
getting moisture out of this one and
I've done this test before and we've
compost it looks not much wetter than
that and got quite a bit of moisture out
which shows actually how this test is
valid because you can't always tell just
by looking at it by squeezing do you do
that every soft and if you're worried
about moisture levels because that can
tell you but one other clue as to the
state of moisture in a compost is do you
see the color of this one is quite dark
almost going to black and this one is
more Brown this is a big difference it's
certainly visible to the naked eye and
dark brown is the color of choice if you
can get dark brown that's definitely
better than jet black and we'll see that
again in a minute
turning compost is not obligatory it's
an optional extra and you only need to
do it once at most it's a way of
introducing fresh air oxygen which feeds
the bacteria and they help to promote
further decomposition and you can also
be breaking up lumps you find and mixing
the ingredients a bit more thoroughly so
that your finished product is nice and
even this heap is three months old and
as I move it I'm breaking up the lumps
and introducing pressure here are some
different compost all organic matter
decomposing becomes compost so I just
want you to show you some possibilities
of the compost you might use in a garden
and for example here this one is green
waste compost and it contains quite a
bit of wood those woody bits there
they've been shredded it's garden wishes
be sure it is in quite big bits of wood
and this compost is very black and
that's almost certainly because he got
very hot and that's not always a good
sign it probably means it's quite low in
microbes and organisms so a similar
looking compost we have here that with
less woody bits is well rotted coming er
so this was manure it's now compost
which is where a lot of confusion can
arise because calling manure compost or
manure may I refer to it as compost even
though it was coming here and it's three
years old actually but just look how
beautiful that is of that almost
certainly is full of microbes has quite
a few organisms and visible ones and
they're worms and things and then lastly
this is the homemade compost that we've
been looking at how to make and you can
see that it's not quite so dark as
either the Karman you
the green waste it's a little bit more
Brown and I would back this one to be
the fullest of life in all forms and
very very good to use in the garden
compost making like gardening as a whole
actually has quite a few myths involved
and a lot of them are bit annoying
because they involve extra work one for
example is about separating out things
that are supposed not to go in a heap
for example roots of perennial weeds
like bindweed in couch grass well I put
those all in as long as they're covered
enough that they can't regrow before
they decompose they're fine and they're
adding extra goodness to your heap like
it leaves is another one so blighted
potato tomato even blighted potato
tubers I put all of them in and the
reason that if you light spores cannot
survive on inside and compost they can
only survive on living plant tissue so
it's fine once it's broken down you've
got no more blight spores to worry about
and I've done it where I've added like
leaves and tomato tubers and things to a
compost heap in the autumn spread that
compost in the spring and grow and
lovely Tomatoes no problem at all
and then there's rhubarb leaves citrus
peel all the other things you're
supposed not to add well you can and I
do other people do they're fine two
other things to mention is size of a
heap it's sometimes that you need like
pallets sides flat it would that allows
air in the sides which is obviously good
in fact it doesn't make much difference
and I am using here plywood mostly solid
size sometimes I got palette it's
basically not so important the main
thing is to I think have a site it
really helps you could make an open heap
but having size keeps it tighter and
more tidy and lastly a speed of assembly
at some times said you need to make a
heap in a day or two and get it really
hot all that kind of thing heat is often
cited as an important factor which it is
in some ways but it's not the most
important and it's not the governing
factors the main things to get balanced
ingredients right which changes all
through the year and that is one of the
two
is a compost making that you then have a
different product each time you can have
fun making it and see what happens
and this is it
the finished product we now have compost
ready to use after turning I leave it
for a few months however long it takes
until it's looking something like this
where you can run a fork down through
like that and it breaks apart quite
nicely so I'm finding that I can break
up the lumps with a fork the four prong
manure fork is very useful for that and
you can even lift it without you know
you don't need a shovel to spread this
compost load this in the will power and
when spreading it also do that sometimes
just breaks up the lumps even more
there's no need to save compost like
this you can put it on with lumps in
that is absolutely fine they will break
down in the weather and it's all extra
goodness that you want to make every
little last bit off so this compost is
about eight months old since it was
started feet heap was assembled over
about six weeks then sat there maturing
for another six weeks then we turned it
by moving it into here about five months
ago and that is it the finished product
that will give you so much success with
all your garden
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