You really can never have too much compost…

One of the first jobs we tackled here was the creation of ‘compost corner’.  The soil at our finca is better than much in Spain, we were lucky that previous owners had kept donkeys and grown crops before us so the soil had been improved historically.  We may be luckier than most but still, the soil here is stony, light and shallow so we can never have too much humus.

There are as many ways to make compost as there are people making it.  This won’t be an instruction or rule book but just some information on what works for us.

Where to put the Heaps.

This is critical – they need to be handy for both adding to the heap and also not a million miles from where you want to use the finished product.  In our case we’ve put the heaps at the end of our ‘huerto’ (veg plot terrace) near (but not so close as to encounter any problems with run-off) the hen house.  This means we have a little bit of a walk when adding kitchen waste to the pile but have no such issues when moving the heavier residue from the hen house or putting the compost onto the veg plots.

What Kind of Compost Heap/Bin?

Wow – there are so many answers to this one. In a small urban garden those purpose designed plastic water-butt style bins are convenient but if you’ve got lots to compost you need to think on a grander scale. In the future (a time a long way off) we’ll have stone-sided wood-fronted bays which look nice, are easily made animal-proof and good for keeping everything in its place. In the now (a time I believe will last for many years) we’ve got a mish-mash of pallets and salvaged planks/shutters/window frames and any other wood we can get our hands on forming a not very elegant but definitely effective set of compost boxes. Use whatever you like but make sure your compost can be in contact with the soil, that it’s is well ventilated and most importantly that it’s easy to use. Make sure you can add stuff easily and likewise that you can get your hands on the finished product without having to rely on tall friends. We’ve found the most practical solution, whatever your materials, is to build permanent side & backs to your bays whilst making sure the front is easily moveable. We build the front up with planks of wood dropped between two posts on each side, increasing the number of planks as the heap grows. Then when you’re ready to use your compost just remove the planks and shovel to your hearts content

How Many Heaps?

As many as you have room for!  For us, the best set up is three compost heaps plus a spare bay where you can store large quantities of debris which we don’t want to put on the heap in one go.  Grass clippings and spent straw are the usual loads we keep to be added intermittently through the compost pile.

We work on a six month rotation:

Heap A is created over a period of six months and is then capped with lots of grass clippings / old manure.  While heap A matures for six months we create heap B.  At this point I’d like to have heap C to start so we can have one heap being created, one maturing and one being used to spread on the plot at anyone time. In practice, heap C is often being used to store things such as grass clippings or spent straw that I don’t add to the heap in one go.  So I suppose I really need four…

This means everything has between six and twelve months to compost, which in our climate is probably overkill but better to be safe and all that…

Flies and Other Pests

Our first heap attracted many flies.  For anyone familiar with the Spanish countryside you will know that more flies really isn’t something you want to encourage.  In the summer months there are already way way too many.  Now, all our compost heaps are well covered with old carpet and all ‘interesting’ additions, such as kitchen scraps are buried in the middle of the heap.  This helps discourage not just flies but dogs (ours and random lost hunting dogs) and wildcats so is definitely a necessity.  In fact we’ve now fitted wooden lids to the heaps to ensure no wildcats or dogs can access them.  Making sure new additions of kitchen waste are buried also ensures you have no nasty smells lurking around your compost mountain too.

What to Compost?

This is a touchy subject for many and I have to say compost what you feel comfortable with. I’m not sure why but many people have an issue composting cooked / processed foods and meats. Usually preventing pests is the cited reason – I don’t know why as I find dogs, cats, mice & flies are all just as interested in wet grass clippings, manure, rotten cabbages and soggy kitchen roll as they are with pasta and fish. Generally I find our hoard of pets will try to dig out anything that I don’t want them to; soggy kitchen roll and toilet roll tubes are an absolute favourite. So whatever we compost we’d have to make the heaps dog proof anyway.

We’ve gone with our gut on this one and compost nearly everything we encounter which was once alive…

· Garden waste – anything not too woody (in which case it can go in the bread oven).

· Weeds – if they’re rampant and you’re worried about them surviving the heap leave them in a bucket of water for a few weeks – they’ll be nicely mushy and definitely not able to survive the heap.

· Hen house waste – feathers, waste food, sawdust, straw and poultry manure is added whenever the henhouse is cleaned out.  Likewise any animal residues – dog poo and even dog fur after their summer shaves.

· Kitchen waste – all water used for washing up – yes I know this may seem excessive but in our dry climate this is a necessity to ensure the heap doesn’t completely dry out. All waste food except cooked bones (which we find don’t breakdown and look pretty unappealing when the compost is applied as a mulch). That means we compost all raw food and most waste cooked food too (including raw bones, meat cooked or raw, fish etc).  I do admit to being a bit of a stickler for re-using leftovers and being greedy so there’s never a lot of food wasted anyway!

· Paper & card – kitchen roll, newspapers, boxes – any paper product really except those with a plastic coating.

· Compost loo residue – So that’s human faeces, urine, loo roll and sawdust / pine-needles / grass clippings depending on what we’re currently using to cover our poop!

The addition of so much manure means our heaps heat up very quickly and break down into lovely looking compost in two to three months. However, as we use this on everything we grow including all my lovely veggies I try not to use the lovely stuff till it’s had about six months hanging around. That way I can be completely happy any harmful pathogens are long gone.

If you are starting out and don’t want to be handling all the ‘yucky’ bits and bobs just compost whatever you feel is acceptable – any composting is better than none. We find putting nearly everything once alive on our heaps is perfect for us. But then we don’t have the luxury of municipal refuse collection so have to think a lot more about everything wasted than we ever did during our previous lives as city dwellers. If we don’t put something on the compost heap we’ve got to find another way to get rid of it. In my past life I composted only peelings, clippings, newspapers, mowings, prunings and ‘safe’ weeds, all in a plastic compost butt in the corner of the garden. It was a huge success I had lovely friable compost in no time, but now I get much much more of it!

Each year our soil is improved a little bit more.  You can see it, there’s more bulk less sandy dirt, and most importantly the crops are better.

However you can, as much as you can recycle the easy stuff at home and make yourself a better piece of land by using your own compost.

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