Home composting is the ideal way to recycle your household waste and to achieve a beautiful garden at the same time.

In an age where we are strivng to be 'greener' and where, for many people, refuse collection is less frequent than it used to be, why not invest in a domestic composting scheme and put back into the soil much of the goodness that came out of it initially?

Home composting is easy, cheap and, above all, rewarding as your plants ultimately benefit from the enriched soil in your garden. Some sources believe that up to 30% of household waste can be composted. Add this to your garden waste and you have a ready supply of compost to enrich your garden.

So what precisely are the ingredients for a successful compost, and what should be disposed of elsewhere? Here are lists of garden and non-garden waste to guide you:

Suitable For Composting

• Grass cuttings;
• Prunings and clippings;
• Leaves (in moderation);
• Nettles;
• Young annual weeds;
• Pond algae;
• Bedding plants past their best;
• Tea Bags, coffee grounds & filter paper;
• Vegetable peelings;
• Fruit remains (including citrus peel);
• Straw and hay;
• Old flowers;
• Toilet and kitchen roll tubes;
• Used tissues, kitchen towel and napkins;
• Egg shells and egg boxes;
• Small amounts of newspaper and cardboard (crumpled);
• Wool, cotton threads, feathers and hair;
• Ashes fom paper and wood;
• Tumble dryer lint;
• Vacuum bag contents.

Not Suitable For Composting

• Perennial weeds;
• Weeds in seed;
• Any plastic, polystyrene, glass or metal;
• Meat and bones;
• Dairy products;
• Cooked vegetables;
• Baby or animal waste.

Getting The Balance Right

If you follow the Suitable For Composting guide above you will be well on your way to generating a suitable garden compost. It is important not to load your composter with too much of any one item, however.

A mistake often made by people composting for the first time is to load their composter with just grass cuttings and fruit and vegetable waste. This will generate a very slimy, smelly compost.

Others cram their composter with autumn leaves and plant clippings and prunings. Leaves typically take two years to decompose sufficiently to be regarded as useful compost ingredient, and dead matter does not naturally produce enough nitrogen to facilitate the decomposition process.

What is required, therefore, is a combination of both 'green' and 'brown' ingredients. In so doing, you will create an ecosystem in which bacteria, insects and worms will thrive, helping to produce the ideal compost for your plants and vegetables.

If you require a composter to deal with your household waste, then see our List of Composters.