Making compost is not too difficult, but it is also easy to get wrong if you don’t follow a few simple rules. My more complete guide to making compost gives a more full picture, but here are my three golden rules for making good compost.

1. Make Sure That You Use the Right Mix of Materials

It is easy to think making compost is about throwing your garden and kitchen waste onto the compost heap and waiting for it to rot down. And to a certain extent this is true, but if you have too much of the same sort of material then you will not get decent compost. Kitchen and garden waste can be broadly grouped into “greens” and “browns”. Greens are the more moist things such as grass clippings, weeds, most vegetable peelings, etc. Browns are the dryer material such as straw, onion skins, newspaper, wood shavings, etc. If you have too much green material then your compost will decompose into a green foul smelling sludge. Whereas if you have too much brown then it will probably not rot at all.

The secret then, is to get a good mix of the two. Don’t layer them, but make sure that they are well mixed together. If you don’t routinely compost a great deal in respect of browns, then it is a good idea to keep a stock of newspapers ) not glossy colour magazines) to add in shreds if your compost is looking a little too green.

2. Don’t Add Perennial Weeds

The eventual aim of composting is to produce compost that you can use to improve your soil. So the last thing you want to do spread perennial weeds over your garden which will then multiply over the area you have sought to improve. It is fine to add the tops of nettles, but not the rest. Docks are a particular weed to avoid – the leaves may be fine, but personally I wouldn’t risk it.

These weeds are best disposed of by burning. It is possible compost perennial weeds; you do this by putting them in a rubbish sack pierced with a fork and tied up and left for several months. Obviously if the roots are not completely rotted and destroyed by the heat of the composting process you still run the risk of spreading weeds, so I limit this compost to areas that I am not too concerned if weeds take hold (i.e. not the vegetable plot).

3. Don’t Let Your Compost Dry Out

If your compost is not reasonably moist then it will not decompose. Many people choose to cover their compost which helps to keep the moisture and warmth in. During particularly dry periods it will need water adding or adding more green material than usual.

So there you have it – keep to these and you should have perfect compost to spread around your garden to improve your soil.