All Green Ceramic Compost Caddies
Making your own compost is to watch nature in action, as you see leftover food and plants turn miraculously into rich ‘black gold’. This is also a good way to avoid having to lug home heavy plastic bags of compost from the store (many contain peat, which is from endangered bogs that support native wildlife, so should be avoided). Removing peat from the land also is a major cause of flooding, as the uneven bogs help to absorb rainwater.
Avoid fresh compost near pets (may contain mould). Never use cocoa/pine/rubber mulch near pets (toxic, stomach punctures and choking hazards respectively). Avoid Green Cone composters (they ‘cook’ garden creatures as there is no soil inside) and wormeries (many die on transfer to the soil or sent in the post).
How to Make Compost
First, you need a good compost bin. Even Greener sells good ones made from recycled plastic, with base plates to deter unwelcome creatures (they offer large sizes and some councils offer discounts, if you buy direct). Place near good footfall (to avoid shy creatures like mice). Then add a mix of greens and browns, to avoid compost becoming too slimy or dry. For grass cuttings, a spinning tumbling compost bin offers good aeration and helps speed up the process.
Greens
- Grass cuttings
- Fruit & vegetable peelings (remove plastic stickers)
- Apple cores & citrus skins
- Used tea leaves or teabags (no nylon string)
- Used coffee grounds & filter papers
- Dead flowers & houseplants (no weedkiller)
- Nettles & ‘healthy organic weeds’
Browns
- Shredded paper & cereal boxes
- Feathers found in the garden
- Egg boxes & crushed egg shells
- Corn cobs & stalks
- Used toilet & kitchen roll tubes
- Clean tissues (no kitchen fat, butter etc)
- Natural string or raffia
- Dry leaves, hay, straw, small twigs
- Sawdust (not chemically-treated)
- A few pine cones (not many)
- Collect fallen leaves in a jute leaf sack to produce winter leaf mould
Things Not to Compost
- Anything not biodegradable (nylon string etc)
- Animal foods (meat, fish, dairy, eggs)
- Glossy magazines (chemicals)
- Cat litter
- Plants treated with chemicals
- Diseased plants
- Coal or charcoal ash
- Fat, lard, oil, grease
- Rhubarb leaves & black walnut tree leaves (contain toxins that could harm insects: just bin them)
- It’s best to leave composting dog and cat poop to the professionals (non-edible crops only). As most faeces contain parasites from meat that could harm worms (and birds that eat them). You may also have issues with flies and rats. Dog poop also carries risks to other dogs, wildlife and humans (which is why you should pick up poop with biodegradable bags, then bin them). This post has useful info.
Bokashi composting uses molasses bran sprinkled over leftovers in a sealed container (use one, one the other ferments over 2 weeks). Once ready, drain off the plant feed liquid through a tap, then add compost to plants. These bins can take cooked animal foods, so ensure compost is fully fermented, to avoid pets and wildlife digging up bones. Read Bokashi Composting.
Beautiful Ceramic Compost Caddies
These beautiful ceramic compost caddies are part-glazed in beautiful designs, with filtered lid to help reduce odours (each order includes one spare filter, which should last around 3 months). They feature a hidden ring for placing a compostable liner inside.
How to Use Compost
Once made, add compost to plants, leave a little gap around soft stems. See how to make your garden safe for pets to know toxic plants, mulch and other items to avoid. Don’t place foliage overlooking gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
You could if wished start a community compost Brighton Community Compost Centre collects garden waste from local people, and sells compost back to residents, at less cost than the DIY store.
- Compost City is by a former New York fashion journalist who is now the ‘composting queen’. Rebecca shows how to make compost in any size space with little effort, no smelly mess or creepy crawlies. Ideal if you compost one tea bag, or whole honking barrelfuls of scraps at a time.
- How to Make & Use Compost shows how to create the right mix for composting and how to safely compost food. Learn different compost systems and how to make liquid feeds and potting compost, and set up a community compost. Includes an A to Z guide of what to (and not to) compost.
- Compost Teas for the Organic Grower is by permaculture orchardist Eric Fisher who offers an in-depth history on the soil needed to grow healthy compost teas. You can use plants to make teas, and encourage beneficial insects for healthy ecosystems.
Where to Buy Good Compost
Natural Grower Compost is organic and peat-free. Made from maize (a by-product of making renewable energy), it contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and trace elements, and is certified biodynamic and vegan. Suitable for outdoor and indoor plants, use for strong roots, healthy green foliage and increased resistance to disease. The same company make an organic liquid plant feed (dilute with rainwater to make it slightly acidic for acid-loving plants). And a natural fertiliser mulch.
For Peat’s Sake is a good peat-free compost.
Bloomin Amazing and Plant Grow are two good fertilisers.
contain mould. Blue Cross has a good post on pet-friendly gardens.
These compost caddies are well-made and part-glazed in beautiful designs. They feature filtered lids to help reduce odours, and a hidden ring for placing a compostabel liner inside. Made from English terracotta clay, they are available in several attractive colours. Change the odour-absorbing filter every 3 months (each order includes one spare filter).
Compostable leaf sacks are open mesh to collect leaves and compost to leaf mould. These biodegradable sacks can hold a lot of leaves, and can also be used to store fresh produce. Fill with slightly damp leaves you have raked up and leave in a shady corner of your garden until next year, to produce a nutritional soil conditioner that is slightly acidic, so good for beds and borders.
