Making Compost at Home - Jenny Rathbone

In these difficult times, let's look at what we can do better. This is an inexpensive but very useful compost bin, around £23 from Lidl. It's a decent size, but you can make one from pallet wood fairly easily, or buy online.

Good compost consists of four components. Carbon, Nitrogen, Air and Water. The carbon layer is generally known as 'brown material'.. Dried leaves, cardboard, shredded paper, straw and dried grass cuttings. This makes by far the main volume. The nitrogen, or 'green' layer is uncooked kitchen scraps, such as fruit and vegetable peelings, banana skins, green grass cuttings, weeds and dead flowers. Avoid citrus peelings which take a long time to break down. No weeds that have gone to seed, and definitely no meat, bones, fish or dairy products. The photo shows the brown layer.

Start building up the layers. This photo shows the peelings. At this stage, the compost will need some moisture, so dampen with some water, just to keep it moist, not too much so that it's dripping. If you pick up a handful, you should only be able to squeeze out a few drops.

Continue adding layers of brown and green items to your pile. You can also add spent compost from old pots with your brown layers.

This green layer is hedge clippings, but they break down much faster if you cut the woody stalks into small pieces as you add them to the pile. The green layers are naturally more moist than the brown layers.

You can add shredded paper, as this is classed as a 'brown' or carbon layer. The fourth element is 'air', so every now and then, you must stir the mix, turning it over to let air in, either using a garden fork, a spade, an old broom handle or even your gloved hands. The idea is to create the perfect black gold, sweet-smelling and full of nutrients. As time goes by, you will develop your own recipe. You will be able to feed your soil, and fill window boxes and containers using nothing but kitchen and garden waste products, saving lots of money to spend on seeds for next year's vegetables. Let's get growing!