How to compost kitchen scraps for a veggie garden

Turning kitchen scraps into something the garden can actually use

Most of what goes in the kitchen bin is the exact thing a vegetable patch is short of, which is organic matter, and it costs nothing except a bit of patience to turn one into the other. Composting has a reputation for being fiddly and it really isn't, because the pile does almost all of the work and the only part you have to get roughly right is the mix going into it.

Greens and browns, and why the balance is the whole job

Compost runs on two sorts of material. The greens are the wet nitrogen rich stuff, so fruit and veggie peelings, coffee grounds, tea leaves and lawn clippings. The browns are the dry carbon rich stuff, so dry leaves, shredded cardboard, newspaper and straw. If you lean too far into greens the heap goes wet and sour and starts to smell, and if you lean too far into browns it just sits there doing nothing for months, so aim for a couple of handfuls of browns for every handful of kitchen scraps and adjust from what you see.

The methods, and which one suits which yard

• An open heap or a bin. The standard version, tucked somewhere shady so it doesn't dry out, layered as you go and turned over whenever you remember. Give it a few months and you have compost.
• Trench composting. The laziest one and my pick for anybody who thinks composting sounds like a project. Dig a hole in an empty bed, tip the scraps in, cover it with soil, and plant over the top of it next season.
• A worm farm. Worms chew through kitchen waste quickly and what comes out the other end is about as good as garden feed gets. It suits a courtyard or a small yard because it takes up almost no room.
• Bokashi. An indoor bucket that ferments the scraps first, including the meat and dairy a normal heap can't handle, and then the fermented material gets buried in the garden to finish off.
• A tumbler. Same idea as a bin with a handle on it, so you turn it with a spin instead of a fork. It's quicker and it costs more.

What to keep out of it

Almost all fruit and vegetable scraps are fine, and so are eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags without the plastic in them. What I'd leave out is anything oily or greasy, meat and dairy unless you're running a bokashi bucket, plants you've pulled out because they were diseased, and big loads of citrus or onion all at once, since a lot of it in one go will knock the balance about.

When it goes wrong, which it will

• It smells. Too wet and too much green. Fork through some dry leaves or shredded cardboard and it'll settle down within a week.
• Nothing is happening. Usually too dry, so water it until it feels like a wrung out sponge, and turn it to get some air into the middle.
• Something is getting into it. Bury the food scraps under a layer of garden waste rather than leaving them sitting on top, and keep a lid or a cover over it.

Knowing when it's ready

Finished compost is dark and crumbly, and it smells like the floor of a forest rather than like the bin it came out of. Dig it through a bed before you plant, spread it around things that are already growing, or mix it into potting mix for pots. You won't ever make as much as the garden wants, which is worth knowing early so you don't feel like you're doing it wrong.

Shop related products

• Brunnings Garden Compost with Seaweed 25L. For topping up when the heap can't keep pace with the beds.
• Neutrog Rapid Raiser 20kg. Pelletised organic feed that works in alongside your own compost.
• Neutrog Cock N Bull 30L. Composted manure for digging through a tired bed.
• Martins Organic Sugar Cane Bale 11kg. Mulch over the top, and it breaks down into the soil as it goes.

Did you know we also stock garden forks in the shop, which is the tool you want for turning a heap over. Garden hand tools aren't listed on the website, so ring us on (08) 8536 4333 and we'll tell you what's on the shelf.

The garden centre carries the compost, the manures and the mulch that go with a heap of your own, so have a look through the garden range or come in for a yak about it.

Read next

• Compacted soil, what it does and how to fix it
• How to prepare your soil for a winter vegetable garden
• 7 habits that make a vegetable garden work

I'm still the person who tips a week of scraps in and forgets to put any browns on top, so if your heap smells, you're in good company.

Cheers,
Candeece