things to leaf behind

Mirabelle Creations

Composting is the process of breaking down organic matter into a dark, crumbly texture that resembles soil. It involves the natural decomposition of materials like food scraps and garden clippings. But what makes it work?

At the heart of composting lies the work of microorganisms—tiny life forms that feast on your waste, breaking it down efficiently. This process creates heat, which speeds up decomposition and kills off any unwelcome seeds or plant diseases.

Making your own compost is a wonderful way to convert food waste into rich soil for your garden, and avoid buying peat, which supports habitats of endangered wildlife.

Use no-dig methods and fruit protection bags ( instead of netting) to help wildlife. Learn how to create a garden safe for pets (use humane slug/snail deterrents). Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens (to help stop birds flying into windows).

Never fork compost piles, just gently prod as many creatures including hibernating hedgehogs can often be found inside.

What not to compost: latest research suggests to just bin citrus, rhubarb and alliums (onion, garlic, leek, shallots, chives) as acid could harm compost creatures – same with tea/coffee grounds due to caffeine.

Also bin soap nuts (natural insecticide could harm compost bin creatures).

Tips for Outdoor Compost Bins

  1. Keep fresh compost away from pets, as it contains mould.
  2. Always gently disturb (don’t fork) compost piles before handling/moving, as frogs and hedgehogs often sleep or hibernate in or underneath compost bins. 
  3. Avoid rodents by siting compost bins  near footfall and not adding animal foods (it’s illegal to sell food made with composted animal foods). Also ensure you add more ‘greens’ (rodents are attracted to dry compost with too many ‘browns’).
  4. Avoid ‘hot composters’ as these ‘cook’ garden creatures that fall in, as there is no earth to keep them cool.
  5. Leave wormeries to the experts (worms for compost bins are different to earthworms, and many die when transferred to soil or get lost in the post.

evengreener compost bin

Blackwall compost bins (also in black) are made from recycled plastic, and some councils also sell them at discounts, so check before you buy online.

This is England’s best-selling compost bin, with an ample 330 litre capacity (or a compact 220L for small gardens) that retains heat to encourage moisture and produce a healthy mix of microorganisms.

Sold with a 5-year guarantee, it’s UV-stabilised and includes a wide aperture for easy filling. You can also buy an optional base plate to place on solid surfaces to increase ventilation and improve drainage and replacement hatches.

Know Your Greens and Browns

A good compost bin is made up of a roughly equal mix of greens and browns. Too many greens (like grass cuttings) will make your compost slimy, and too many browns (like leaves and cardboard) will make it too dry to turn into compost.

Try to tear up things like cardboard for faster composting. You can usually leave grass clippings on the lawn (if you have a lot of them, try a tumbling compost bin instead).

Green materials are rich in nitrogen. Think of grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, and coffee grounds. They provide the moisture and proteins microorganisms need for growth.

Brown materials are high in carbon. These include dried leaves, twigs, and newspaper. They offer the energy microorganisms require to decompose waste effectively.

Greens include:

  1. Fruit & veg peelings
  2. Fresh grass clippings
  3. Onion skins
  4. Egg shells
  5. Chicken, cow or horse manure
  6. Seaweed (keep away from pets)
  7. Dead flowers
  8. Cut-up plastic-free cleaning sponges
  9. Cut hair & pet fur (not with flea medicine etc)

Browns include:

  1. Fallen leaves (or use a leaf bag and sit in the corner of the garden and it will turn into leaf mould in a year or two).
  2. Shredded newspaper & cardboard (no magazines, due to inks)
  3. Sawdust or woodchips, straw or hay (in small amounts)
  4. Pine needles
  5. Cornstalks (after harvesting) if cut up
  6. Old paper packaging (shredded)
  7. Egg boxes
  8. Untreated wood chips
  9. Plant-based cut up fabrics (cotton or linen)
  10. Bamboo toothbrushes

An Odour-Free Kitchen Compost Bin

Lomi home composter

Lomi is a clever kitchen composter, to stop food waste. It stops smells and waste and is a good industrial composter for kitchens (it costs a few hundred pounds). Used by 100,000 people, it simply turns food scraps into nutritious compost.

Just push the button to turn your food waste into plant-friendly dirt! No ants, fruit flies or maggots. It sits on the kitchen countertop and is small enough to store in a cabinet. Ideal for anyone in a city apartment to a huge mansion.

Lomi home composter

The sensors simulate and accelerate the natural process to produce compost in as little as 4 hours. You can put yard and food waste in this, but also animal foods if you eat them, along with bread and grain products and Lomi-approved compostable packaging. It’s around the same size as a bread maker and uses little electricity.

Japanese Bokashi compost bins

bokashi bin

Bokashi composting bins were created by a Japanese professor and unlike conventional compost that uses oxygen, these use lack of oxygen instead, using a bokashi bran that you add to food waste, then close the lid and leave for 14 days to produce compost to add to your outdoor bin.

The resulting liquid can be drained off using the tap to use as plant feed (dilute with water 1:200). You buy two, so there is always one on the go. All you need buy after that are bran refills.

Bokashi bins can accept other fruit/vegetable waste, bread, dead leaves & withered flowers and used compostable dish sponges. Unlike outdoor compost bins, Bokashi bins can take most animal products if you eat them (not large bones) due to Bokashi bacteria helping to destroy pathogens.

Don’t compost cooking oil or pour down drains (use a cooking oil recycling container).

Community Compost Bins

Some councils offer community compost heaps. Brighton Community Compost Scheme prevents 100 tons of food going to waste each year, by setting up local compost boxes with monitors.

Councils may have an industrial compost scheme, for things like ‘biodegradable plastics’ that usually only degrade in such systems.

Reason to Avoid Buying Peat Compost

curlews and birds Holly Astle

Holly Astle

Peat is a natural substance made from partially decayed plant material, that occurs in waterlogged conditions. It’s crucial for the health of the planet and also home to many rare butterflies and other creatures.

Removing it (for both gardening and the hunting industry to make ‘flat land’ for pheasants to eat heather) is causing floods. Despite still being legal to sell, environmentalists urge us not to buy it.

It takes thousands of years for peat to form, mostly from dead mossed in waterlogged conditions, when oxygen is scarce (so peatlands deprived of air don’t decompose). Instead, they store carbon and regular water by absorbing rainfall, reducing flood risk. This in turn offers shelter and food for many species.

When peatlands are harvested for horticultural use, this devastates ecosystems and contributs to climate change, by releasing vast quantities of stored carbon. As peat is now renewable (and we have lost half our peat bogs in England), they are in great danger. Peatlands are also home to 5000 species of insect and supply most of our drinking water.

Gardener Monty Don calls using peat ‘eco-vandalism’ (even today, some organic box schemes use peat to grow lettuce, and most garden centres sell it). He wants the government to ban its sale, to protect curlews, golden plovers, hen harriers, amphibians and reptiles.

  • Natura Grow offers organic compost made from energy crops, on a Cambridgeshire farm, which are fed into anaerobic digestors (to supply energy). Buy as liquid feed or pellets, that are added to soil.
  • Some composts are made from coir (a by-product of processing coconuts) and others use bracken. Two good brands are Natural Grower (which also offers a liquid fertiliser to pour around the base of plants). And Fertile Fibre (multipurpose, seed or potting compost)
  • B & Q now sells own-brand peat-free compost, and commits to going peat-free by 2026. But why wait until then?

pheasants Holly Astle

Holly Astle

Peat burning often occurs on land used for grouse shoots, by burning vegetation (that lays on top of peat), usually purple moor grass or heather. This provides new heather shoots for grouser (so they are easier to find and shoot).

A voluntary ban by government a few years ago did not work, with Greenpeace reporting fires on peatlands, in northern England’s national parks.

The peat bogs on a grouse shooting estate were on fire. The burning of peatlands is likely to exacerbate floods downstream. Towns in the Calder Valley such as Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd have been flooded repeatedly. George Monbiot

Plant Fertiliser (from waste seaweed)

shock shot seaweed fertiliser

Shock Shot Seaweed Fertiliser is made from waste seaweed, a better idea than fishmeal or bonemeal, which is unkind and can attract vermin.

This fertiliser is a nutrient boost to your plants. Just mix with water and see them thrive. Bring plants back to life. Just add to at least 1 litre of water in your watering can, to heal drooping leaves, slow growth or a tired appearance. The concentrated seaweed can enhance root health and promote vibrant growth.

Never harvest seaweed yourself (leave it to the experts to ‘give seaweed a haircut’ and not remove the roots). As one expert said, it’s seaweed to you, but the universe to a shrimp! Also don’t let dogs play with seaweed fronds. They can expand in the stomach, as the dry.

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