Composting

HOME COMPOSTING
By following a few simple rules your kitchen and garden waste can be turned into earthy, sweet-smelling compost – perfect for use in the rest of the garden.  The key to success is to keep the heap aerated and with a good mix of waste, to encourage decomposition by aerobic bacteria and the odd worm or two. 

There are different choices of compost heap:-

• Build a pen from wooden slats.  Leave a gap of at least 4” between each slat to allow air to circulate.  Cover with old carpet, or a sheet of polythene to keep the rain out.

• Use wire netting staked with posts.

• Purchase a plastic compost bin Argyll & Bute Council.

• Build or purchase a wormery.

For composting advice and queries please contact The GRAB Trust or the Compost Association (www.compost.org.uk).  A useful book about composting is "Backyard Composting" by John Roulac, published by Green Earth Books.

Inverary Primary Pupils are keen to start
composting with their new wormery

WORMS AND COMPOSTING
Worm composting is easy, fun and produces some top-quality compost ideal for organic gardening.  The brandling, or manure worm is a particular sort of earthworm that is excellent at decomposing waste organic materials.  The resulting dark, crumbly compost is valuable in potting mixtures and as a garden fertilizer.  It is the ideal solution for people who don’t have a large garden, but would like to produce home compost from their household waste.

A simple box or modified dustbin would make a suitable container, as long as it allows plenty of air circulation, drainage and is rain and vermin-proof.   Worms can survive an Argyllshire winter, if they are in an insulated container (old carpet or bubble wrap is good for this), or the container is lifted into a garage or shed, to avoid the worst of the elements. 

Worms can be bought from a specialist wormery supplier such as Wigglywigglers, or from local worm composters here in Argyll.  Contact the Grab Office for details. 

Worm composting does need some careful thought before embarking on such a project, but when you compare prices between garden-centre compost and home-made worm compost… you can see why worms are so popular!