How to Make Compost at Home: A Simple Guide
Compost is one of the most useful materials you can make for an organic garden. It returns nutrients and organic matter to the soil, supports soil life and helps the ground hold both moisture and air.
Making compost does not need to be complicated or exact. The aim is simply to combine a varied mixture of fresh and dry materials, keep it reasonably moist and allow fungi, bacteria and other organisms to do the work.
What you need to make compost
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You can make compost in a purpose-made bin, a wooden bay or a simple open heap. Choose a position that is easy to reach throughout the year and place the compost directly on the soil where possible. This allows worms and other beneficial organisms to enter from below.
You will also need a mixture of nitrogen-rich “green” materials and carbon-rich “brown” materials. You do not need to measure exact proportions—the important thing is to include a good variety rather than allowing one material to dominate.
What to add to your compost
Green materials
Fruit and vegetable peelings
Fresh grass clippings in thin layers
Green plant trimmings and annual weeds
Coffee grounds and tea leaves
Manure from herbivorous animals
Brown materials
Dry leaves and dead plant stems
Torn plain cardboard and paper
Straw
Small amounts of untreated sawdust or wood shavings
Shredded woody prunings and small twigs
Getting the balance right
A healthy compost heap needs both green and brown materials. Green materials supply nitrogen and moisture, while brown materials provide carbon and help create air spaces.
Add materials in mixed layers rather than large quantities of the same thing. Whenever you add a wet or dense material such as kitchen scraps or grass clippings, mix in some dry leaves, torn cardboard or another brown material. The finished heap should feel moist like a wrung-out sponge, but it should not be dripping wet.
What not to add
Avoid adding:
Cooked food, meat, fish, dairy products and oils
Dog or cat waste
Glossy or plastic-coated paper and cardboard
Diseased plant material
Weeds carrying mature seeds
Persistent perennial weed roots unless they have been thoroughly dried
Wood treated with paint or preservatives
These materials may attract pests, introduce unwanted chemicals or allow diseases and troublesome weeds to survive in the finished compost.
Looking after the compost heap
A compost heap needs moisture and air. Check it occasionally and add water if the materials are becoming very dry. If it is wet, compacted or smells unpleasant, mix in more dry brown material.
Turning the heap introduces air and can speed up decomposition, but it is not essential. An unturned heap will still produce compost; it will simply take longer. Covering the top with cardboard, an old sack or a fitted lid helps retain moisture while preventing the heap from becoming waterlogged.
How long does compost take?
Compost may be ready in a few months if the materials are chopped, mixed and turned regularly. A cooler heap that is left mostly undisturbed may take a year or longer. Both methods work.
Finished compost is dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling. Most of the original ingredients should no longer be recognisable, although a few twigs or tougher pieces can be returned to the next heap. Do not worry if your homemade compost looks less uniform than a bagged product—it will still be valuable in the garden.
How to use finished compost
Spread finished compost over the soil surface as a mulch, usually in a layer around 2–5 cm deep. There is no need to dig it in—worms and other soil organisms will gradually incorporate it.
You can use compost to improve vegetable beds, around fruit bushes and trees, or as a top dressing for established plants. Homemade garden compost can also form part of a potting mixture, but it is usually too rich and variable to use alone for sowing seeds.
Start with what you have
Good compost comes from variety, time and living organisms—not from following a perfect recipe. Begin with the materials your home and garden already produce, keep a reasonable balance between fresh and dry ingredients, and adjust the heap if it becomes too wet or too dry.
Every batch will be slightly different, but each one returns valuable organic matter to your soil and reduces the amount of useful material being thrown away.
