Many of us have beautiful backyard gardens and those on recreational plots. It is worth taking good care of them, as we have written about in the previous article. Beautiful flowers and nicely trimmed grass are not enough. An important step in caring for the garden is to make sure we have the right fertiliser for our plants. Nowadays, people all over the world are increasingly environmentally conscious. A garden composter is the ideal solution - ecological and economical.

Where to start when setting up a garden composter?

Apart from the most important role of the garden composter, which is to create fertiliser, composting enables us to dispose of garden as well as organic household waste in an environmentally friendly way. We can set up a garden composter in a few simple steps. First of all, it is important to choose a location. It should be a shady part of the garden, but with access to daylight, and at a suitable distance from residential buildings.

The next step is to choose the material from which we will make our garden composter.

Plastic or metal containers are available, which will work well if you have limited space. It is important that they have perforated walls, which is essential for air circulation inside! For larger gardens, a wooden box will work perfectly. By stacking the boards alternately, it is possible to construct a suitable height for the composter. If you decide on such a box, it should be placed on soft soil. This will make it easier to flip the compost layers, which is worth doing every two to three weeks.  Now it's time to compost. Place thicker branches at the bottom of the garden compost to facilitate air circulation. Once the branches are in place, sprinkle a layer of material that will absorb the water leaching the mineral substance from the top layer. The soil is then covered with mature compost, which you can borrow from a neighbour or compost accelerator. On the site thus prepared, we can pile layers of compost.

What can and cannot be put into compost?

What you put into the compost has a big impact on the quality of the fertiliser. Leaves, grass cuttings or wilted plants should be the basis.. Be careful with weeds! They should not contain seeds, as this can cause them to spread! Throwing in household waste such as raw vegetable peelings or egg shells will also work well. Meat and cooked vegetables should not be thrown in, as this can attract rodents. The layers of compost should be shaken up after each throwing in, and when they are very compact we should loosen them by adding shredded branches. It is a good idea to cover the compost with straw or staple bags for the winter.

With a little bit of work, we can make a very good fertiliser for our plants, and we will be recycling our household waste in an ecological way. A garden composter will also certainly make it easier for us to keep our garden tidy.