Compost

 The engine room of this garden is the compost heap. Every garden should have one - no organic garden can do without one. The resulting matter feeds the soil, thus feeding the plants, blackens the soil thus making it warm up quicker. It creates a free draining but moisture holding friable soil that your plants will positively thrive in. 

All this from a waste product you would have to dispose of anyway if you didn't make compost. 

One of the first things we did when we started this garden was set up a compost heap, after all we had plenty of stuff to get rid of, and it fitted perfectly with our organic principles. 

In theory, anything that once was living can be composted, but it's not as straight forward as that. You certainly don't want to add cooked foods to your compost as this may attract rats. 

The key to good compost is a 50/50 mix of carbon and nitrogen. So good carbon ingredients include: woody stems, straw, shredded newspaper, cardboard. Good nitrogen ingredients include: grass clippings, vegetable peelings and soft pruning. One of the most common failings of compost is too much nitrogen, especially grass clippings. Compost your grass clippings but mix it well with carbon rich composting. 

(The start of this years compost) 

(Last year's compost ready for use) 

You can just pile up your waste matter and it will eventually (and happily) break down into lovely organic matter. But it can look an eyesore, so to make the garden look tidier and speed up the process at the same time you really need a compost bin - preferably two so as one bin is breaking down, you are using the contents of the other. Then once one bin is empty you can turn the ingredients of the other into the now vacant bin. 

Compost bins come in all shapes and sizes (and prices). The best bins we've used over the years didn't cost a penny. They were made of recycled wooden crates made to fit the available space. The worst and most expensive ones are those plastic Daleks offered by local authorities. Our latest bins are 6ft long x 3ft wide x 3ft high made again from recycled timber, with removable slats at the front and lids to keep the heat in and the rain out. 

Whatever materials you choose to use, please have a go at making compost; it is the kindest thing you'll ever do to your soil. Well made garden compost is infinitely better than anything you can buy from a garden centre. 

During lockdown we used nothing but garden compost for everything: sowing seeds, potting up summer bedding, enriching the vegetable beds and potting cup tomatoes and cucumbers. And, it's nice to think that you sowed a seed, nurtured a plant. You picked that plant, threw the outer leaves on the compost heap and those outer leaves became the compost that enriched the future plants you grow. 

Creating that cycle is very satisfying. 

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