Don’t throw away your garden or kitchen waste – use it to make free compost, or donate it someone else (we used to beg mowings from neighbours to heat up our compost heap). Compost is very good for plants.
Garden compost is useful for all types of garden, not just vegetable plots, because it:
- Holds moisture in the soil. Garden compost will improve the water holding capacity of soils and help plants survive summer droughts. You don’t even have to dig the compost in if you don’t want to, just spread it over the soil and the worms will do the rest.
- Prevents evaporation from soil. Used as a mulch around plants when the soil is moist, garden compost will prevent water evaporating from the soil’s surface too.
- Assists drainage of very wet soil. Waterlogged or sticky soils are improved by garden compost, which assists drainage and improves the root zone for plants. The resultant thriving plants will take up water, thus further relieving the waterlogging.
- Reduces peat use. Peat has been unnecessarily used by gardeners for soil improvement and mulching for years, which makes the return of garden composting even more important, helping to conserve peat stocks for more appropriate use.
- Reduces waste. Composting is a great way to convert waste into something useful in an environmentally friendly way. You reduce the waste the local council has to deal with, reduce the demand for more landfill sites, save on fuel used to take waste to the tip, and produce a valuable garden product on site.
- Saves your money – it’s free and no need to pay delivery charges or fuel to collect it
- Saves your time/energy – no need to lug back bags of commercially produced stuff from the shops or garden centre.