Compost 'complete and natural food for soil'

13:49 13th March 2008

Compost provides soil with all the nutrients that it requires in a natural fashion, a local authority explains.

Gardening enthusiasts may be interested to hear that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea explains that the product improves the structure and water-retention capabilities of soil and is easy to obtain.

Household waste that can be used to make compost includes vegetables, fruit peelings, animal manure, straw and hay, vacuum cleaner dust and hair.

Meanwhile, things to avoid include brightly-coloured paper, hard objects such as stones, bits of glass or metal and meat as the smell can attract animals.

The product takes around six to nine months to mature, but horticulturalists do not need to wait until everything in a bin is composted before making use of it, as in many cases only the crumbly, dark material at the bottom of the compost bin is usable, while the top layers decay.

In related news, online resource recyclenow.com explains that the composting process can be sped up by regularly mixing the contents of a compost bin.