Making your own compost can:

• Help protect your local environment.
• Save you money
• Help your garden grow naturally

How to Compost?

Compost is best made in a home-made or bought composter. Sligo Borough Council sells ‘240l Milko Premium’ compost bins for €25 and provides a complimentary ‘Guide to Home Composting’ produced by the Rossinver Organic Centre, Co. Leitrim with each bin sold.

Easy step-by-step Guide to Composting

1. Put your composter in the garden on bare soil, NOT paving or decking. It should be somewhere that is easy to get to all year round.
2. Add your garden trimmings, dead flowers etc. to your composter as they become available Ideally, you should have a mix of ‘green’ and ‘brown’ materials. Greens are soft, wet materials like grass cuttings which won’t successfully compost on their own. Browns are harder, drier materials. Try to add equal volumes of both types.
3. Composting works best if you add a lot of materials at once. Chop chunky and large items into small pieces to help speed up the composting process. Try to ensure your compost is moist but not wet – when squeezed in your hand, a few drops of water should be produced. Add water if it is too dry; cover and add dry material if it is too wet.
4. If you wish, add some soil, finished compost or a compost accelerator (young nettles are an excellent natural accelerator) to help speed up the composting process.
5. Keep adding a good mixture of materials …
6. Finished Compost

Your compost is ready when it is dark in colour and has an earthy smell. This can take from 6 to 18 months depending on the materials used and the time of year. The finished compost will appear at the bottom of your heap. Remove this to use on your garden. If some of the materials have not finished composting, simply put them back into your composter. When you add new materials this will help to keep the composting process going