The green issue is one I feel very strongly about and believe everyone should do their part for the
environment, even if it is as small as changing the way you throw your rubbish away. In the UK we have all been given new colourful bins to help us segregate our rubbish and assist us in recycling.
However, I have found there is an even better way to recycle and give back to the environment; home composting.
Not only will you reap in the benefits of knowing you’re doing your part for the environment, but you’ll see the effects in your garden. Your flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs will love the organic matter you’re putting into the soil and will offer you an array of beautiful blooms, scents, flavours and colours that will add interest to your garden all summer.
What you can put into your compost bin
Around 40 per cent of the content in an average dustbin is suitable to put in a compost bin. Almost anything that was once living (excluding dairy products, meat and cooked food) including:
- Egg shells
- Grass cuttings
- Flower trimmings
- Magazines and newspapers
- Young weeds (avoid perennial weeds)
- Woody items
- Fruit and vegetable peelings
- Comfrey leaves
- Nettles
- Shredded paper
- Sawdust
- Teabags
- Toilet and kitchen roll tubes
- Cereal boxes
If you haven’t got a compost bin they’re relatively cheap to buy, but they’re also fairly easy to build. This is an excellent opportunity to use any unwanted wood pallets that are lying around the garden. The amount of wood needed depends on the size of compost bin you wish to build, other than that all you need are a few plastic ties.
After you have collected your wooden pallets, simply use some plastic ties to hold the planks to form a box for your compost. I’d usually advise to make new compost bins every two years as they compost themselves as well.
Other benefits of making your own compost
- Fresh compost can be incorporated into your soil at any time, once the composting process has completed
- It can be used as a top dressing to replenish the nutrient content of your soil
- Home compost will improve the structure of the soil and may also help to stabilize the pH
- Suppress weeds, keep moisture in and stop soil erosion, when used as a mulch
- It can even be added to a potting compost mix, but it would need to be sieved to ensure a finer grade.
Mr McGregor
Mr McGregor features as a guest blogger on Notcutts, giving advice and tips to his readers on growing your very own kitchen garden and green ways to maintain your garden.
Image sourced courtesy of : Vegetable Garden Guide
This is a really great and informative article, thank you so much for sharing it with me! My family and I have recently been trying to create a more “green” environment at our house, and these tips are sure to help us do even more to help the world become a more eco-friendly place. Are there any other little tips you can provide to a new be-”green”-er just starting out?
Hi Melanie
Another great thing to add to your composting garden is a wormery. It creates a brilliant and organic liquid feed as well as small amounts of compost.
It’s amazing that 40% of our typical garbage is wasted going to landfills instead of being composted properly and put to use.
We have a green bin program now but there’s nothing more eco friendly than doing it yourself!
You’re right Peter. Home composting is great. I’ve got a lttle wormery too although I dont get much compost out of them at present but I’m sure they will multiply given time.
Thanks for sharing this great idea about composting biodegradable garbage. This is really important today in order to lessen garbage from home. Composting is also good to soils because it can give nutrients.