Recycle Devon shares some simple steps on how to reuse your food and garden waste to make compost for a healthier garden
If you’re a keen gardener and want to ensure your garden is healthy for the year ahead, or want to reduce the amount of waste you put out for collection each week, why not start home composting?
Adding home-made compost to beds, baskets and pots is a natural, low-cost way to put nutrients back into the soil and restore the natural balance to your garden.
Home composting is a simple process and now is the best time to start. Here’s how to do it:
A compost bin, or heap, is best positioned on soil but can work on concrete. Placing the bin in a sunny location will speed up the process, but it will also work in the shade. Place your bin anywhere that’s convenient, but not too close to your house.
Anything that has recently lived can be composted but care needs to be taken with certain materials, including meat and fish. The most common materials to compost are: fruit and vegetable trimmings, grass cuttings and garden waste. In addition to these, you can compost small amounts of paper and cardboard.
Once your kitchen caddy/container is full, empty this into your compost bin. Try to get a 50/50 mix of greens and browns, as this creates the best compost.
Greens include vegetable peelings, fruit waste (and other food waste depending on your composter), old flowers and weeds, grass and hedge clippings, and fresh leaves.
Browns include straw, wood shavings/pellets, cardboard/scrunched-up paper, small twigs and dead leaves.
Recycle Devon has partnered with getcomposting.com to offer home compost bins at special prices for Devon residents, including an additional buy-one-get-one-half-price offer on all Blackwall Compost bins. This is a great opportunity to team up with a friend or neighbour to save some money.
The Blackwall 220L compost bin transforms kitchen and garden waste into valuable, nutrient-rich food for the garden.
If you’re looking to compost food waste at home, the Green Johanna 330L compost bin recycles garden and food waste including cooked food, bones, meat and fish into natural, organic compost.
Low-cost home compost bins, together with a range of water butts and additional accessories, can be ordered via: getcomposting.com, or call: 0844 571 4444.
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