Composting in September

They say spring is the season of love. Too right! At Get Growing, we love composting, and spring is the best time to start doing it. We’re all geared up for composting season with our kitset compost bin, which we also love. They’re made from sustainable timber, and the open design promotes aeration, which in turn, speeds up decomposition of your compost heap. So, browse the Get Growing website, say gidday to your fellow compost lovers, and check out our bins. In the meantime, here are some tips to ensure your composting efforts are successful.

Putting the best stuff into your compost bin will ensure you’re on the right track from Day One. A mixture of carbon and nitrogen is the perfect blend to aim for, so collect everything from vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds, shredded paper towels and eggshells. Don’t add meats or fatty foods, animal droppings, seeds or diseased plants as they can attract pests and spread disease through your compost and, eventually, your garden.

Layering is another top tip. For every layer of kitchen waste, add a layer of garden or backyard waste, such as sticks or twigs. Break them down into fragments about the size of your little finger so they decompose more quickly.

The ideal compost pile is a damp one. Moisture helps break down the contents of your bin, so if your pile is covered, or if you’re going through a bit of a dry spell, add water. Not too much though! Just enough so the pile feels moist, like a damp sponge, instead of dripping wet. If things do get too wet, add some more paper content to soak up the excess water.

Adding some water can help your composting, and so can worms. Vermicomposting is the process where worms turn your organic waste e.g. kitchen scraps into a rich and nutrient-packed compost. Put some wriggly critters in your bin and you’ll be amazed at what a little worm poo can do!

As the song goes, you can’t hurry love…even in spring, when your heart is racing at the prospect of creating the world’s most beautiful compost. What’s needed is patience, not passion. It’ll take six months to a year for your compost to be ready to use. Applying it too early will rob your garden plants of nitrogen. To get an idea of its readiness, your compost should look like a rich, dark soil, and should smell (pleasantly!) earthy. If you still see bits of rotting matter, such as vegetable scraps, wait a while longer.

Your patience will be well rewarded. Your compost will make a wonderful fertilizer for your crops, and act as a chemical-free pesticide in your garden. Dig the compost into the soil; planting directly into compost can burn the roots of the plant.

These things will help you get maximum results from your composting. The time to get started is now, because spring is the season of love AND composting. So, come on in you old romantic, check out the kitset compost bins on Get Growing, and do all the composting your heart desires.