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Well made compost looks, feels and smells almost good enough to eat. It should be dark and crumbly, moist but not wet, and smell sweet.

The compost container can be a plastic bin, or the type you tumble so the contents mix and react regularly, a simple crate made from wooden laths, or just a pile in the back corner of the garden.

The most important thing about compost is to use a variety of organic materials. Chop prunings from the garden into small pieces so they'll break down easily. Rake grass clippings when you've mown the grass, and add them. Keep a bucket in the kitchen for vegetable and fruit peelings. It's okay to add a small amount of citrus peel, despite warnings against it. Tea bags and coffee grounds are good. Vacuum cleaner dust is fine and I also add the copious amounts of dog hair that I sweep up, or brush out from them each day.

I find manure from grass eaters like horses, cows, sheep and donkeys beneficial. It is plentiful where I live and in the compost it has time to rot down, so it won't burn off the garden plants. If you don't have easy access, you can buy pelletised manure to add.

It is also a good idea to add coarse material like twigs and small branches, as they allow air to penetrate and that lets the soil organisms flourish.

Worms will be attracted to the compost and will assist in its breakdown.

What you don't add to compost is any diseased plant matter; seeds from anything you don't want to spread, ie weeds; and meat or bones. The latter attract your neighbour's dog and will have the same effect on the local rat population as the Pied Piper.

Alternate layers of dry and green matter and if the whole mix is dry, water it. Turn the mixture regularly and aerate it by prodding it with a pole. After a few months it should have become dark and loamy. It will add nutrition to sandy soils and help them retain water. It will improve drainage in clay-type heavy soils. And it will recycle all your garden and kitchen waste, instead of adding to the landfill problem. Plants really appreciate the improvement to the soil. Magic.

Learn more about this author, Jackie Tritt.
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