Get creative for compost awareness

Spice up your garden by decorating your compost bin for Compost Awareness week this year which starts on 6th May.

Garden Organic, in association with Master Composters have organised ‘Decorate your compost bin’ competition, all you have to do is get creative with your bin, take a snapshot of your artwork and e-mail or post it to Garden Organic by Wednesday 8th May.

It’s a great opportunity for all the family to get involved with composting with categories for under 11’s, 11-18 years and adults. You can even enter as a group or class; simply complete the application as normal and give average age of the group.

If you haven’t got a compost bin yet don’t worry, Dorset Waste Partnership have teamed up with getcomposting.com so you can make the most of your kitchen scraps and garden waste without breaking the bank.

For inspiration and more details on how to enter visit Garden Organic.

Turn over a new leaf, start composting this autumn

With autumn once again upon us, it’s that time of year when you start to think about tidying up the garden before winter arrives.

There is lots of nutrient-rich waste around – old bedding plants, grass cuttings, leaves and prunings – which can all be composted.

It’s important to have a good mixture of materials (you don’t want too much of any one thing) if you want to make a good quality compost. As well as green garden waste, you can compost fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, tea bags, pet hair, and even shredded paper.  Try to aim for a 50/50 mix of ‘greens’ (vegetable peelings, old flowers, grass cuttings, spent bedding plants) and ‘browns’ (garden prunings, coffee grounds, tissues and paper napkins, cardboard, etc). 

If you have too many leaves for your compost bin, just put the excess into a bin bag, make a few holes in it, and leave in a secluded spot to rot down. It will be a great soil conditioner in a few months.  Another good tip is to use your lawnmower to collect up leaves: this shreds the leaves and helps to speed the composting process.

If you get it right, this autumn’s compost will provide a free supply of nutritious soil conditioner that will enrich your spring planting next year.

Read about our compost bin offers here.

Spring into action – Compost Awareness Week is here

‘Pass it on’ and community spirit is the theme of this year’s Compost Awareness Week, which runs from today (1 May) until 7 May 2011.

To support this, we’re encouraging you to pass on your home composting and gardening tips to family, friends, neighbours and your local community.

We’re also running a series of composting clinics to teach you how to get started or how to do a little bit more – click here to find your nearest. Any keen gardeners are welcome to come along and pass their composting tips to us too!

Home composting is an inexpensive, natural process which is much better for the environment than sending uncooked kitchen and garden waste to landfill, where it can generate methane – a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide.

To put your scraps to good use, we’ve also teamed up with bin manufacturer Straight Plc to provide a range of compost bins, kitchen caddies and water butts at bargain prices – read more here.

 

Give your compost bin a Christmas present

Many of us will have extra waste over the festive period. Your compost mix will benefit from adding a few of the telltale signs of Christmas.

Fallen poinsettia leaves, scrunched up wrapping paper, satsuma peel and egg shells will all be welcome winter editions!

Adding waste through the cooler weather helps to keep the composting momentum going at a time when decomposition will naturally slow down, so don’t forget to feed your compost bin as well as your family and friends this Christmas.

 Read more here.

Don’t ‘fall’ behind with your autumn composting

Many of us are missing a trick if we don’t continue to use our compost bin through the colder months.

Home composting is easy to do all year round and autumn is a great time for it as there is lots of nutrient-rich waste available – old bedding plants, grass cuttings, leaves and prunings can all be composted.

Try these composting tips:

• Help next years’ plants grow by making use of this year’s tired vegetation – adding old bedding plants to your compost mix will help to capture all the nutrients and will give new plants a great start next spring
• Bring the inside, outside! A third of household waste can be composted at home. Anything from loo roll tubes and egg boxes to coffee grounds and tea leaves can all go in
• Make your compost mixture more a-peel-ing. Don’t forget to regularly add suitable kitchen waste to your compost

The key to good compost is getting the mix right. You need to keep your ‘browns’ (garden prunings, coffee grounds, tissues and paper napkins, cardboard) and ‘greens’ (vegetable peelings, grass cuttings, old flowers and bedding plants) balanced – aim for a 50/50 mix. Air is essential to the composting process. By mixing the material up, as you fill your bin, this creates air pockets and helps to keep it healthy.

Are you thinking about starting to home compost? Find bargain compost bin prices here (opens in a new window).

New green solutions leaflet

A new leaflet featuring all you need to know about food and garden waste solutions is now available. It focuses on how you can reduce food waste, help the environment and save money.

It’s packed with information about:

Wormeries – process of using worms to break down kitchen and garden waste, to create faster than normal composting.

Food digesters – These take all household food waste. No compost is produced, instead food waste is converted into water, carbon dioxide and a small amount of residue that needs to be removed from the basket every few years.

Compost bins – Come in all shapes and sizes. The key to good compost is getting the mix of “browns” (items such as egg/cereal boxes, straw and hay) and “greens” (tea bags, grass cuttings and fruit peelings) properly balanced.

Hot composters – Are different from normal compost bins because they can take all cooked and uncooked food waste. They also produces compost unlike food digesters.

The leaflet also has a useful flow chart to help you choose the best solution for you as well as information on typical costs and where to purchase them.

Check out the new leaflet today and try one of the many food and garden waste options available.

Thirsty, why not turn to the tap?

This weekend our recycling officers will be at the Wild about Wimborne event on Saturday 24 July. If you’re in the area why not stop by our stand and take the tap water challenge to see if you can taste the difference between tap and bottled water.

We’re aiming to encourage more local people to start drinking tap water as it tastes just as good as bottled, and saves money, waste and energy.

The team will also have information available on home composting. It’s surprising how much of your household waste can actually be composted – fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, pet hair, toilet roll innards and dead flowers can all go in.

So if you’re thinking about home composting, come along and pick up some great tips to get you started. You can also find out more about our compost bin offers.

Find out which events our recycling team will be at this summer.

A summer menu for you, and for your garden

Whether you’re having a barbecue, or summer Sunday lunch with the family, make sure you put all your compostable kitchen waste into your compost bin, along with your grass cuttings and prunings.

Here are a few tips:

Healthy spread: summer salads provide plenty of vegetable and fruit waste: excellent ingredients for composting

Shortcut to success: cutting waste into small pieces will help to speed up the compost process

Off the compost menu: Composting meat, bones or food scraps is not recommended

If you aren’t already composting at home, summer is the time to get off to a flying start! With warmer weather providing optimum composting conditions, this is the season to speed up your compost-making.

We’ve also secured new special offers on compost bins, so it is even easier to start. Now is the time to check these out.

Join in – give composting a go!

It may be nearing the end of Compost Awareness Week (2 – 8 May 2010), but it’s never too late to start composting or trying new activities.

More than half of Dorset households with gardens are already home composting but there are lots more things we can all try like composting general household waste such as scrunched up paper or the contents from your vacuum cleaner.

Why not try composting your egg shells? We eat around 29 million eggs each day in the UK, which could go into the compost bin.

If you’re out and about in the Ferndown area today, why not pop along to Penny’s Walk between 10am – 2pm and find out more at our composting clinic. We’ll also be at Christchurch Market on 24 May between 8:30am and 2pm.

Weymouth ‘Give it a Grow’

To celebrate Compost Awareness Week (2-8 May), we are running a series of compost clinics at locations around the county. The first one kicked off at Goulds Garden Centre in Weymouth.

Visitors picked up some top tips on how to get started, how to make good compost and how to make the most of their compost bins.

Did you know the key to making good compost is in adding the right ingredients?

• A 50/50 mix of ‘greens’ (tea bags, vegetable peelings, fruit scraps, old flowers, grass cuttings, spent bedding plants) and ‘browns’ (garden printings, coffee grounds, tissues and paper napkins, egg boxes, shredded or scrunched up paper) makes great compost.
• Do not add meat fish or dairy products to your compost bin as this can attract vermin. Cooked vegetables and diseased plants should also be kept out as they can spoil your compost mix
• Within nine months to a year your compost will be mature enough to use. You’ll know it’s ready when the compost has turned into a dark, crumbly soil-like substance.
• Don’t forget to keep adding greens and browns to top up the bin as the material at the bottom matures.

Come along to one our compost clinics to find out more!