Compost Masterclass: The Easy Way to Make Compost

What would you say is the very soul of a productive garden? It has to be the soil, right? Get this right and everything else falls into place. And how do you get great soil? You nourish it with the good stuff. Garden-made compost. This is the last of my ready-to-use compost. Let's take a look at it. It's got this lovely rich dark colour and it smells like a forest floor. That's a smell I'm never going to tire of. Well today I'm going to show you exactly how to make compost like this, so do stick around to the end. You can see here that it's still got quite a few twiggy bits in it, but I'm not too worried about that. This has got all winter to continue decomposing and I won't be planting into this bed for at least four months, by which time this should all be super soft and crumbly, and any of the bigger bits that are still left I can just rake off before planting. But if you did want something a little bit finer, say to add to a potting mix, then this would be very simple to sift through a sieve to leave a finer, crumblier compost. As you can see my working heap here is well and truly full, in fact it's positively overflowing. Nothing more can go on here, so it's time we started a new heap. This is where I've been digging out my mature compost from, and all of that has gone on to the growing areas now to protect the soil over winter and to feed next season's vegetables. And at this time of year this will soon fill up with all of autumn's leaves, discarded crops, weeds, prunings and whatnot, so let's get this area ready shall we? The corner posts here are a little bit wobbly, some are actually quite sturdy still, but whatever, I reckon I'm easily going to get another season out of this. However what I will do is just sturdy up the walls a bit, and for that I'm using this cattle fencing here which I'm just going to kind of flex into place around the edges. Now you could do a heap without any walls at all, but insulation and keeping it hemmed in does help, and I'll explain why. If we load all of this up with material all in one go, we will create a really what's called hot heap, and the microorganisms will power up and we could get temperatures up to 130 Fahrenheit or 55 Celsius or more. This stuff's going to be added gradually so we won't get to that sort of temperature, but it will get a bit warmer once those microorganisms get going, so if there's heat we know they're doing their thing. Now to help keep it all insulated and that little bit warmer as we head into winter, I'm just going to line the walls now with this cardboard. I'm quite pleased with that, it feels like I've made a little bit of a den almost, and actually the view from here is just delightful. It's a gloriously sunny autumn day, it'd be quite a nice place to sort of spend the day reading and just chilling out, but we can't do that. Let's crack on with the rest of it. So I've got my tape measure out here to measure the volume, and it comes to around two cubic meters, that is around 70 cubic feet. Now volume is important because the greater the volume, the slower it will cool down during the winter, so it will remain active for longer. Generally as a rule of thumb, anything above one cubic meter, that is 35 cubic feet or what's that 1.3 cubic yards, is about right. If you can get that that's fantastic. That doesn't mean that smaller compost bins are no good, they just will take a little bit longer that's all, and in fact many off-the-shelf compost bins are a fantastic solution for most gardens, and they look really tidy too. Ideally you want to put your compost heap or bin directly onto the soil, this will just make it easier for the worms and microorganisms to find their way in, but don't worry if you can't do that, the worms will still find their way in. They always do somehow, they're little Houdini's. This new compost heap is going on the footprint of the old one and there's still quite a bit of compost lying around, so this will kind of inoculate the new material that we add with all the microorganisms and all the other beneficial stuff that will help to jumpstart the composting process. If you're siting your compost bin or heap somewhere completely new, then one little tip is to introduce a few handfuls of garden compost from another heap into your heap, just to give things a bit of a jump start and get those microorganisms in there quicker. Compost is a beautiful thing because it transforms what might otherwise be wasted into stunning nutritious plant food, it's just magical. I also feel when you get to grips with it, it connects you quite literally with the circle of life, and for me digging out fresh compost gives the same kind of sense of euphoria as picking that first tomato of the season. It's just wonderful stuff. There's a lot of discussion and debate about the best compost recipe. Everyone has got an opinion, but it really doesn't have to be complicated. For me it's all about getting a good variety of ingredients into my heap, because that means a broad range of nutrients which is going to be good for our plants. Let's start filling this up. First up is a lovely cushion of leaves which at last are falling fast and furious now after quite a late start to autumn. Compost ingredients are divided into browns and greens. Browns have a higher carbon content and tend to be kind of drier and woodier. Fall and autumn leaves are browns, and we will be looking at other browns in a bit. Next up are some greens such as these old spent crops, and I've got in here some old tomato stems which I've stabbed up into smaller pieces which will hasten their decomposition. Now greens are higher in nitrogen and they tend to be fresher, wetter, greener materials therefore. Next up is some wood ash, and this will have lots of sort of micronutrients and all sorts of goodness. Now this is by no means essential, but if you do have a wood burning stove or similar, then this is quite a good way to perhaps get rid of it. Just scatter on a few handfuls as you layer things up. Now do make sure it is wood ash and not coal ash or ash contaminated with impurities like bits of metals or plastic, because you don't want that eventually ending up on your growing areas. A little sprinkling of fairy dust. Let's look at some more browns and greens, starting with browns. So I've got some old straw here that's going on, then I've got these twigier bits from the last batch of compost that haven't quite finished decomposing. Those will go back on, and then torn up cardboard and sort of brown paper. This kind of plain cardboard like this is absolutely fine, it's all going on. Don't throw all of these away by the way, they make great little pots, and if you haven't seen our recent video on what to sow at this time of year, do watch it because we make great use of these. Next up some more greens, and in here I've got some grass clippings and pulled up weeds and so on, and a few more spent crops. Let's get these on, and then in here are some kitchen scraps, and if you look closely I've got coffee grounds. Now coffee grounds are really fantastic because these are really high in nitrogen, so despite being brown they are in fact a green for the purpose of composting. Add these in and they will really help to fire up your compost heap and get the heat in. Other compost accelerants or boosters include pet bedding and poo from herbivorous pets like hamsters, livestock manure and your own wee, though only if you're not on medication. Obviously it goes without saying, please pee discreetly, you don't want to be upsetting the neighbours. Get a good mix of ingredients and aim to balance out your browns and greens. As a rule we are aiming for about one half to two thirds browns and then remainder greens, but don't worry too much, just try and get between those ratios. Now it can be hard to get enough browns during the growing season, so it might be a good idea to hold back some browns for later on, for example dried leaves or say plenty of torn up cardboard. Getting a good mix of greens and browns as well as keeping everything well insulated should really help to speed our compost up. The other important thing is to make sure it's neither too wet or dry. In the heat of the summer things can get quite dry, so if that's the case just maybe give everything a good water as you add your ingredients layer by layer, and then in the winter well it can get a little bit wetter, and in this case you can improve things by mixing in some drier browns such as torn up cardboard or leaves for example. Give the heat a good squeeze and if you get it sopping wet and moisture's coming out of it then add those browns. Anything that once lived is organic matter and will eventually decompose, but in a domestic composting setup there are a few things you want to avoid. These include meat and meat derived products like bones, cheese and milk and so on, as well as cooked foods. These could attract vermin like rats. You also want to avoid things like grains, pasta and bread. They can be added in very small amounts but generally best avoided. The tops of nettles are really good to add to the compost heap as a bit of an accelerant as well. Most weeds can go onto the heap with a few exceptions. Don't put annual weeds onto the heap that have set seed already because the seed may well survive the composting process and when you spread your compost around you'll be spreading those weed seeds as well. Also perennial weeds, don't add any of the roots because these have a habit of surviving. You can add the tops but not the roots. So here I've got bindweed for example and