Amateur Gardening

Focus on… Compost heaps

WHETHER your compost area happens to be large or small, indoors or outside, there’s a method out there to suit every household and gardening requirement. Let’s look at the options for organic-rich bliss!

The process itself is simple. Grab a mixture of ‘green’ (such as kitchen fruit and veg scraps, broadleaved hedge prunings and sappy veg garden waste) and ‘brown’ materials (woody prunings, bark chips and dry leaves, for instance). Mix it together thoroughly, keep moist and allow for the passage of time – and compost will be yours. It’s decomposed via naturally occurring fungi and bacteria, along with tiny creatures like woodlice, earthworms, nematodes and millipedes, into a nutrient- and organic-rich material that can ultimately be added back into your garden. Follow my checklist tips on the following page, and there’s not much that can go wrong.

“Two bins, side by

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