How to Make Compost at Home Without It Going Wrong

January 8, 2024

Compost gets talked about like it is a science project, and the ratios and the carbon to nitrogen business puts people off before they start. It is a heap of stuff rotting down. You can get it wrong and it still mostly works, which is the bit nobody tells you.

What is actually happening in there

Bacteria and fungi break the material down first, and they want two things in roughly equal amounts. Greens are the wet nitrogen-rich stuff, so kitchen scraps, fresh grass clippings, spent plants. Browns are the dry carbon stuff, so dead leaves, straw, shredded cardboard, prunings.

Get that balance somewhere near and the heap heats up, which is what kills off weed seeds and the nastier pathogens. Then it cools and the worms and slaters move in and finish the job properly. Both stages matter and the second one is the one people cut short.

Getting one going

Pick something to put it in. A tumbler suits a small yard because it is tidy and you turn it with a handle. An open bin or just a heap in the corner works better on a bigger block because you can get a fork into it.
Layer greens and browns. Roughly half and half. You do not need to weigh anything, you just need to stop putting in six weeks of grass clippings and nothing else.
Turn it. The microbes need air, and a heap that never gets turned goes sour and slow. Once a fortnight is plenty.
Watch the moisture. It should feel like a wrung-out sponge. Too dry and nothing happens at all, too wet and it goes slimy and starts to smell.
Know when it is done. Dark, crumbly, smells like dirt, and you cannot tell what any of it used to be.

When it goes wrong, which it will

Almost every compost problem is one of three things and they all have the same kind of fix.

If it stinks, you have too many greens and not enough air, so add browns, turn it, and it settles down inside a week. If it has done nothing for two months, it is either too dry or short on nitrogen, so water it or throw in some manure and turn it. And if you are getting rats or flies, something has gone in that should not have, because meat, dairy and oily food do not belong in a home heap.

The moisture one is what everybody gets wrong first, and it is worth checking before you decide the whole thing has failed.

While yours is cooking

A heap takes months, so if you need to plant something now there is no shame in buying a bag and starting the heap anyway. Most people run both for the first year and then stop buying it.

Shop related products

Brunnings Garden Compost with Seaweed 25L. For the beds that need it before your heap is ready.
Naturally Good Cow Manure 25L. Good greens for a heap that has stalled.
Martins Organic Sugar Cane Bale 11KG. Browns, and a mulch once the compost is down.
Neutrog Whoflungdung Mulch 20kg. Composted mulch, for on top rather than in the heap.
Brunnings Garden Lime 3kg. For soil that has gone acidic on you.

The rest of it is in the garden centre range, and it is all on the benches in the shop as well.