Make your own Compost

Making your own compost is easier than you think. It’s a real feel-good exercise – you’ll save money and use a lot of the waste that you’re used to throwing away.

Here’s how to do it :

• Collect organic material from your garden and kitchen. Suitable garden material includes leaves, grass, weeds, dry branches and feathers from animals. Suitable kitchen material includes fruit, vegetables, tea bags, coffee grounds, newspaper, wood ash and manure from pets.
• Choose a sheltered shade spot for your compost heap and prepare a “bed” for the heap by placing a layer of branches and twigs on the ground to allow drainage and air flow to occur.
• Shred all material into small pieces and layer it on the heap in 20cm layers, alternating between dry and wet material.
• If this is your first compost heap, you’ll need to sprinkle some compost activator on each layer to get the decomposition process going. Once you have your own compost, you can use existing compost to activate a new heap.

Your compost should be ready in 4 to 5 months, just in time for your spring and summer planting.