Throwing household waste away is, on the face of it, simple. You just throw it away. However, composting your household waste involves a bit more attention to detail and organisation. Once you know the rules it's simple and forms a very beneficial cycle for both you and your garden.

The first and most important of these rules to learn is what you can and cannot put into a compost bin. Put the wrong foods in and you could end up with something that smells truly terrible and even worse, attracts completely the wrong kind of animal. We're looking for an earthy, mould smell attracting worms and small insects, not a rotting meat smell attracting rats and mice.

What can should be putting into your compost bin is basically raw veg, fruit and fungi (peelings are perfect). Other good materials include tea bags/tea leaves, coffee grounds, dead/picked flowers and weeds (providing they don't have seeds or seed heads on them). These are the things that will compost the fastest, but there are some other materials that you can put in that compost a bit slower: cardboard, thin paper, tree debris (bark, twigs etc.) and sawdust. If you have small animals like hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits you can line their cage with newspaper, then when they need cleaning out simply lift up the poo, sawdust and food on top and compost it. Cooked vegetables are usually a no-no, but if some creep in by accident don't worry too much. Things to avoid like the plague are any kind of meat, fish (raw or cooked) or dairy products as these will decompose or go sour and make your compost stink to high heaven. Also, bread and wheat products will attract rats, especially if they have butter or jam on them, so avoid those too and give them to the birds instead.

Secondly, you need to make sure your compost bin is suitable too. If you've been given one by your local council then great! Otherwise, you'll want to build one, perhaps a brick enclosure on top of soil, slightly raised with holes at the bottom so vegetable and fruit juice can drain from the bottom. You could have a large composting area at the bottom of your garden, but then a small bucket with holes in the bottom just outside the back door. When that gets full just take it down to the bigger compost heap and save yourself walking up and down all the time, or having one nearer the house and having to put up with the smell.

One other thing to mention is the use of worms in compost heaps. If you are prepared to spend the time making one, compost heaps designed to have worms in them will actually compost far quicker and you'll have more of an immediate result. Otherwise you can expect to get your very first compost to put on your garden after one to two years.

Now you know the basics to composting you can get started right away. Even if you haven't got round to buying a small compost bin, or drilling holes in the bottom of a bucket, you can have a tabletop compost ice-cream tub to use for the next couple of days.

Stan Tian

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