Introduction to composting | Grow at Home | RHS

Learn the basics of how and why to create your own compost at home with RHS Garden Harlow Carr Team Leader Ali Mundie.

Gardening advice, tips & inspiration from the RHS


The RHS was founded in 1804, and our core objective is to be the world’s leading gardening charity by inspiring passion and excellence in the science, art and practice of horticulture. In everything we do, we will aim to use our guiding principles, which are to: Inspire, Involve, Inform and Improve.

[janeclare]

My husband made me a set of three heaps after my two-heap set got too old and tatty. He didn't do what I asked, and built it with slots in the side, My old ones (enclosed except for part of the front to allow feeding) used to produce beautiful, crumbly compost like tobacco, as Garden Organic describes it. We're in an elevated, cold area of the southeast and I expect a year for the process to complete. Now it takes at least two. The slatted sides just don't allow the compost to heat properly. It's so frustrating after 45 years of organic gardening to put up with barely rotted tough old grass stems and so on, which I had no problem with before. Only the middle bin gives me anything like what I call proper compost, probably because, like a terraced house, it receives a bit of protection from the outside two. I rotate the bins, 'make', 'rest' and 'use', and use a good combination of nitrogenous and carbon waste. Moral? Make sure if you ask your husband to do a job you can't do yourself, that he understands exactly what you want and isn't the kind of person who thinks he can do better than those who have years of experience....

[rebeccaskillman]

Interesting that you don't shred/cut up the woody material? Nice vid, thanks.

[simonmattholie]

Where can you purchase the compost bin? I like the idea of a recycled plastic bin

[angdean]

Can you advise where to purchase the compost bin? Thanks ....

[elizabethabels]

Do you ever add a sprinkling of soil to the compost?