How to make a compost heap

Creating your own garden compost heap allows you to dispose of kitchen and garden waste, turning it into a soil improver for the garden at the same time. 

How to make compost

When you start making compost, the overall aim is to make a multi-layered sandwich using plant material and the most useful system is to construct three square wooden bins, so that one is empty, one is ongoing and one bin (complete with cover) is actively rotting down. This three-bin system is ideal because the empty bin can be used to turn the almost-ready heap - you just move it fork by fork.

This turning process adds air and makes the compost crumbly. You can easily make your own bin and Garden Organic have a simple link on their website to show how it is done. Recycled wood could be used, but as I am organic all the wood used in my garden and allotment is untreated hardwood as chemicals leach out in the soil from tanalised wood.

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Buying a compost bin

If you are buying, compost bins come in all shapes and sizes and materials but square wooden bins are more user friendly than plastic ones.

The plastic compost bins with lids, though useful in small gardens, tend to exclude air and for this reason I would build or buy a square wooden bin with slatted sides and a removable front. Ideally you should have a bay of three - one to add to, one that's rotting down and one that you're digging.

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Add a lid

Add a cover. If you are using an open wooden bin you need a cover to keep in moisture. You can use large cardboard boxes or a piece of old carpet (rubber side down) as a lid.

To shred or not to shred? 

If you can shred plant material (with a garden shredder) to form coarse chippings it will rot down much faster and make a fine, friable compost.

This is particularly desirable with woody material. The other way to aid decomposition is to turn the heap regularly and, if you can do this, compost could be ready in weeks - at Highgrove they use huge bins and tractors to produce compost in a matter of weeks. Most normal heaps will take months however, but it is a very green way of recycling garden waste - if you have the room.

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When to start your compost heap

You can start a compost heap at any time, but if you haven't already started making compost, September is an excellent time to make a start because you'll be cutting down some of your plants. Look for leafy stems and avoid adding hard, woody material to the heap unless you can shred it first.

Selecting what to add to the compost heap

You have to be selective when it comes to compost. Do not add pernicious weeds, seeding weeds or diseased plant material - put these in a dustbin or your green waste bin. The process of producing green waste used by councils involves heat and this should destroy weeds seeds and pathogens.

Keep the heap moist and warm as fungi operate best in warm and wet conditions. Water your heap in dry weather and cover completed heaps with cardboard. Cover all heaps when cooler weather arrives.

Many heaps end up with far too many grass clippings and the compost turns to treacle. There are solutions. If you place the fresh clippings in full sun (on a sheet) and leave them for a day they will partly decompose and go brown.

Turn the grass clippings and leave them for another day or two before adding them to the heap. These partly-rotted brown clippings can also be used as a mulch and mine often go round the raspberry canes.

What to put on a compost heap

• Grass cuttings in moderation
• Young weeds and nettle tops (but not roots or seed heads)
• Uncooked fruit and vegetable peelings
• Vegetable waste - eg potato haulms and outer cabbage leaves, unless diseased
• Tea bags, leaves, eggshells and coffee grounds
• Soft green prunings
• Plain cardboard, cereal packets, toilet roll tubes and egg boxes
• Plant material - but not seed heads of nuisance plants.

Can be used in moderation on a compost heap

• Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste
• Tough hedge clippings
• Woody prunings
• Leaves (but not too many)

What not to put on a compost heap

• Meat, fish, dairy products or cooked food
• Coal and coke ash
• Cat litter
• Dog or cat faeces
• Disposable nappies
• Diseased plant material

Cold compost heaps

Most gardeners add plant material throughout the growing season and the heap decomposes quite slowly. When you touch the surface it feels pleasantly warm, but not hot. These slowly-rotting heaps are known as 'cold' heaps and the compost is usually dug out after several months.

These heaps still warm up fairly quickly and you can often smell them decaying. Touch the heap with the flat of your hand to gauge when it cools. When this happens you need to turn the heap, putting the less rotted material on the inside. This will reignite the process - but compost from 'cold' heaps still takes months rather than weeks.

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Using compost from a traditional 'cold' heap

Compost from 'cold' heaps still takes months rather than weeks and these heaps do not get hot enough to kill seeds off. Consequently if you spread this on the surface, seeds will readily germinate causing you problems. For this reason you cannot sow seeds in 'cold' heap compost. 

Use this compost below the ground - ideally in double digging. It makes an excellent soil conditioner when dug into the ground over winter.

Hot compost heaps

Hot heaps are made quickly - often in one day - using masses of green material. The heap reaches a much higher temperature and involves a different, much faster-acting set of microbes. To make one gather a lot of green material together and build the heap all at once and then cover it. I have used a willow and hazel frame to contain hot heaps.

Cover the heap up as soon as it’s made and it will soon reach a very high temperature. When you sense it’s cooling, turn it and add a natural accelerator such as comfrey leaves or chicken manure. Within six weeks you can have some wonderful compost.

Using compost from a hot heap

Hot heaps produce wonderful weed-free compost in six weeks. This can be spread on the surface and it can be used for seed sowing too because the high temperatures involved kill off unwanted seeds. You will need to sieve this compost before sowing seeds, however.

Using accelerators on a compost heap

Certain things speed up the composting process because they provide a nitrogen boost. So if you keep chickens, a hamster, a rabbit or a guinea pig, use their droppings and bedding to form a layer. This boosts decomposition and adds more nitrogen. Dog and cat faeces is too acidic, however.

Grow comfrey (symphytum), ideally the non-seeding Russian comfrey clone Symphytum x uplandicum 'Bocking 14', close to heaps and chop up the leaves. These will act as an accelerator and Bocking 14 is the best clone of comfrey - although all comfrey leaves work.

Read more about how to make comfrey tea

Another system is to use urine, but this tried-and-tested idea is much easier and more attractive to the male than the female!

What to do about treacly wet, sticky compost

Many heaps end up with far too many grass clippings and the compost turns to treacle. There are solutions. If you place the fresh grass clippings in full sun (on a sheet) and leave them for a day they will partly decompose and go brown. Turn the clippings and leave them for another day or two before adding them to the heap. These partly rotted brown clippings can also be used as a simple mulch under trees and shrubs.

The second method involves adding plain cardboard boxes. These can be ripped up very roughly and mixed among the clippings to create air pockets.

How to tell when compost is ready

When compost is ready to use it should look crumbly and dark and it should smell sweet. You should also be able to feel the warmth through your finger tips and perhaps (if it’s been working very well) it will also smell of ammonia.

Why is my compost is not rotting down?

Sometimes when digging through your compost you might find the contents are relatively unchanged. You can help it along by forking out the materials onto a tarpaulin and breaking the clumps up into small pieces. If the compost is too dry it might need watering, if it's too wet it will need more dry organic matter such as shredded paper, cardboard, straw, hay and leaves. Sprinkling in some accelerator can help. Then fork it back into the bin, being careful not pack it down as it needs to be as aerated as possible. If it is still not breaking down it might be that there are too many tough evergreens in the mix.

Using compost in your garden

Every time you plant, add some well-rotted, moisture-retentive organic matter to each hole. Puddle all your plants in fill the hole with water and quickly add the plant (to the puddle) and back fill. The action of the water draining away sucks the soil right down to the roots.

Plant densely, to conserve moisture, and always opt for smaller specimens because they suffer less stress. Keep everything well watered in its first growing season.

You can surface dress with compost. Apply the material in the autumn or early winter, on moist warmish soil, and the the layer of compost will soon disappear into the ground, pulled down by worms.

Mulch round your plants though, not over them, and keep compost way well from any silver plants. They will become green and soft, rather than silvery.

The best method of use for vegetables is to bury it by double digging.

Read our comprehensive plant growing guides to find out how to plant flowers, trees and more

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