Composting your Garden Waste

The Carrickfergus in Bloom initiative encourages all Borough citizens to create a pleasant environment by providing colourful floral displays and by disposing of their garden waste in an environmentally sustainable way.

Anyone can transform their garden waste into useful compost simply by installing a Composting Bin in their garden. Carrickfergus Borough Council sells Composting Bins for £5 each. 

For further information contact our Sullatober Depot on T: +44(0)28 9335 1192.

Getting Started

• Place your composter on to well-drained soil in a sunny spot.
• Loosen soil beneath the compost bin to help drainage and to allow worms and bacteria to enter the bin from the earth below.
• Place a few centimetres of manure or kitchen waste onto the loose earth will help to attract worms and micro-organisms.
• Keep a good mix of waste material in your composter to aid decomposition.
• Add the different types of material in layers - approximately 3" to 6" deep.

What can you compost?

• Vegetable and fruit peelings
• Tea leaves, coffee grounds and crushed egg shells
• Evergreen clippings
• Leaves
• Annual weeds
• Prunning
• Grass cuttings
• Straw and hay
• Hair
• Spent hops
• Paper
• Vacuum dust
• Animal manure

Things to Avoid

• Disposable nappies, used paper hankies (in case the pathogens which carry out disease aren't all destroyed by the composting process).
• Excrement - human/cat/dog (for the same reason).
• Brightly coloured shiny card or paper printed with coloured inks.
• Hard objects, stones, bits of glass, metal, plastic.
• Cleaning fluids and other household/garden chemicals.
• Meat (cooked or raw) - the smell can attract animals.

Getting the Best Result
The micro-organisms in your composter will work at their best when the material is kept warm, moist and oxygenated.

Activators

• Natural activators include: Grass, nettles, pond weed, seaweed, urine & manure - horse, cow, sheep, pig and pigeon, and rabbit or guinea pig droppings.
• Activators or accelerators heat up and speed up the composting process, particularly during the colder winter months.
• Buy a range of activators from your Garden Centre. These include blood and bone meal, nitro-chalk and sulphate of ammonia. Contact your local Garden Centre for further information.
  
  
  Warmth and moisture
• Always keep the lid on your compost bin to retain heat and moisture..
• Position your composter out of the wind and in sunlight if possible. The plastic will absorb the UV rays and heat up the compost.
• Do not let the compost dry out. Add water when necessary in very dry hot weather. Remember to keep the lid on.
• Insulate your composter with old carpet or bubble wrap.
  
  
  Aeration
• Plastic composters are designed to allow sufficient air to get to the composting micro-organisms.
• Regular turning of the material will ensure that air gets to the centre of the bin and will speed up decomposition.
• To help aerate your heap you can add scrunched up newspaper, which creates air pockets. The paper will decompose.
• Avoid using too must grass alone.

Options for Using Your Compost

• The compost is ready when it no longer resembles any of the things that you put in it. It should be brown and crumbly with no unpleasant odours.
• Dig it into the soil in early spring or late autumn to improve the soil structure and act as a slow release fertiliser.
• Compost will open up clay soil, making it lighter to work, allowing better drainage and aeration.
• Compost will bind sandy soil together, making it heavier and able to retain essential moisture.
• Use as a mulch. A 3" depth of compost spread around the garden helps retain moisture and prevent weeds from growing. In addition, it releases nutrients into the soil and improves texture.
• Worms pull down the mulch into their burrows, pass it through their gut, breaking it down even more and mixing it into the soil at the same time.
• Well-processed compost can be used as potting compost.

Troubleshooting

Composting and Our Environment
Composting is not just about gardening - it helps our environment. Every year thousands of tonnes of kitchen and garden waste are thrown into our Wheelie-Bins. It usually ends up in expensive, unsightly and environmentally damaging landfill sites.