Different styles of compost bins.

While a large portion of gardeners still prefer the traditional simple heap on the ground, a growing number of us now prefer to use some kind of an enclosure for making our compost.

With so many types of container on the market, which one is best?

Well, the answer differs for every gardener, depending upon how much space you have in your garden and how much material you will be composting from your garden and kitchen.

Plastic Bin:

Commercially made plastic compost bins tend to be better for those who are not devoted gardeners but want to compost their small amount of garden and kitchen waste. Most plastic bins on the market are now made from 100% recycled plastic.

Advantages of Plastic Compost Bins:

Inexpensive and readily available
Locking lid keeps out vermin

Disadvantages of Plastic Compost Bins:

High temperatures needed to kill pathogens and weed seeds not often reached - plastic compost bins are often too narrow to enable the compost to fully heat up
Lack of air circulation due to solid plastic sides and top
Challenging to turn the compost through the top opening with a shovel or garden fork -consider using a compost aeration tool for best results
Removing finished product from flap at bottom can be a challenge.

Wooden compost bin:

Wooden bins now come in a whole variety of styles to blend into your garden surroundings. Styles range from the standard square box, to beehive shaped bins. You can build these at home, or buy from the many outlets available.

Advantages of a wooden compost bin:

Larger capacities of some wooden bins will give much better core temperatures
Gaps between the side slats will allow better airflow through the pile
Usually simple to fill and empty, and many can be built and taken apart in stages to easily turn the compost
Attractive and efficient at housing decomposing material, the composter can be positioned adjacent to your beds or borders without aesthetically compromising your garden

Disadvantages of wooden bins:

Will be more expensive than the plastic variety
In areas where rodents or other unwanted creatures are a problem it can be challenging to keep them out of the bin.

Compost Tumbler:

Using a compost tumblercan be a good way to ensure finished compost in a reasonable amount of time with minimal effort. Although most gardeners will not be able to make finished compost in two to three weeks as some manufacturers claim, there are some good advantages in using a tumbler.

Advantages of Compost Tumblers:

Ease of turning the pile. The significance of turning your compost should not be underestimated

Shorter time to obtain finished compost than most other methods

Disadvantages of Compost Tumblers:

More expensive than plastic bins
Some varieties can be quite difficult to turn when full
Generally have quite a small holding capacity

Vermi (Worm) Compost Bins:

Worm composting, is a process that uses a specific type of worm to break down organic materials. The  worms consume the material and produce castings that are full of nutrients and organic matter. Although worm bins can also be used outside they do need to be moved indoors in areas where winter temperatures fall below 5°C. If you follow the directions, the bin will be largely odour free and can be used year round.
Advantages of Worm Compost Bins:

Great for homes with little outdoor space
The "vermi-compost" produced is rich in nutrients and organic matter

Disadvantages of Worm Compost Bins:

Keeping household pets away from the bin (and the worms)
Some people just can't get comfortable with the idea of having worms at their home in vast numbers

Treat your Soil

It’s hard to believe just how many benefits compost provides for soil. Even when spread on the surface as a mulch, and long before it actually enters the soil, compost helps to suppress weeds, retains soil moisture in dry conditions, and protects soil from the damaging effects of wind and heavy rain.

But it’s when organic matter gets into the soil that it really starts to work its magic. Soil structure depends almost entirely on organic matter. In healthy soil, the organic humus and inert mineral particles are stuck together in tiny crumbs a fraction of an inch across. These crumbs are held together by fine fungal strands, or hyphae, and by organic glues produced by trillions of bacteria.

One ounce of healthy soil may contain up to 54 miles of fungal strands. And what do the fungi and bacteria eat? Organic matter.

The crumb structure of a healthy soil is an important factor in maintaining the soil’s water supply, because tiny pores between the crumbs form a kind of “sponge” that is normally full of water. The soil is also full of larger channels, which fill with water after rain but are normally full of air. This air supply is vital, since plant roots and soil animals need to breathe. Most of these channels are created by earthworms, which eat—you guessed it— organic matter. The more compost you make and use on the soil, the better will be its crumb and pore structure, and the less need there will be to water your plants in dry weather.

Compost is also a valuable source of mineral nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) that plants need for growth.

As organic matter breaks down, the minerals are slowly released and made available to plants. This breakdown happens faster in warmer weather, which of course is when the plants need them most. Some kinds of organic matter break down and release their nutrients relatively quickly, while others go on to form humus, which provides a much longer-lived bank of nutrients in the soil.

Mycorrhizas, specialist symbiotic fungi that live on and in plant roots, also break down organic matter and transfer the nutrients directly to plants, helping to stop them from being washed out of the soil and lost.

In short, plants need three key things from soil— water, air, and nutrients— and compost helps provide all three.

Why compost?

There are plenty of very good reasons for gardeners to make compost, but above all, it spares the environment the damage caused by burying or burning waste, reduces the need to destroy natural habitats by excavating peat, and saves you money.

Every year gardeners around the world buy millions of tons of growing media, soil conditioners, and mulching materials, much of it based on peat. A high proportion of this could be replaced, free of charge, if gardeners started recycling what they now simply throw away.

The soil is also the safest place for waste organic matter.

What is compost?

When animals and plants die, they decompose surprisingly quickly. The end product of this composting process is a remarkably resistant and complex organic substance called humus, which is largely responsible for the brown colour of the majority of soils in temperate regions.

Humus is a mixture of the highly altered remains of the original organic matter—whether from plants or animals—that arrives at the soil surface, as well as new compounds made by bacteria and fungi. But only a small fraction of the original material is destined to become humus. Most simply disappears, turned back into the carbon dioxide (CO2), water, and mineral salts from which it was first made.

Somewhere in this process—between the large amount of original material and the tiny fraction that is left as humus—lies what every gardener wants: compost.

The entire composting process can be seen on any woodland floor. On the surface are freshly fallen, unaltered leaves. Dig down a little way and the leaves become more fragmented and much less distinct. Eventually, you will come to a dark, crumbly material in which the original leaves are quite unrecognisable. This is usually called leaf mould, but it’s just a special variety of compost, made only from tree leaves rather than the usual mixture of materials.

In fact, the woodland floor tells us two important things about compost.

First, the transition from fresh material to finished compost is a gradual one, with the end point being entirely a matter of opinion.

Second, if you were to rummage around in the leaf mould, you would soon turn up a few clearly identifiable twigs. Larger pieces of tougher material (and twigs are both larger and tougher) decompose more slowly than smaller, softer material.

Compost is “finished” when the easily decomposed parts of the original material have disappeared, and the more resistant material has decomposed to the extent that it is no longer recognisable, yet the majority of the original organic matter and nutrients still remain. Nevertheless, deciding when this perfect state has been achieved remains a personal matter, largely affected by how much twiggy stuff you are prepared to tolerate in the finished product. I can’t tell you how to decide when your compost is finished, but I can tell you how to get there in a reasonable time.

The beginnings of a compost way of life.

Few things are better for your plants and for the environment than home-made garden compost, yet why is making it never quite as straightforward as the experts would have us believe?

Perhaps unrealistic expectations, coupled with the modern desire for instant results, are mainly to blame. The commercial garden industry, anxious to sell us a fancy machine or secret ingredient that promises to make compost in days, merely adds to our feeling of inadequacy. But don’t panic, as time goes by this blog is here to help take the mystery and fuss out of making compost.

It makes clear that compost making doesn’t need to be hard work, need cost almost nothing, and that the only secret ingredient you need is patience. It doesn’t prescribe any particular approach, but it does explain that although things will go wrong, if you understand the basic principles and learn from your mistakes, you will soon arrive at a method that works for you and suits your kind of gardening.