When most people need compost they go out and buy a bag from their local garden center.  But this is such a waste of money – you can create your own at home quite easily and you have everything you need close at hand to do it as well!

Compost is not only great for the environment it is also great for your garden.  And since you are a landscaper and lawn care expert, you could also use it when you are landscaping people’s gardens for them.

Nearly half of all our household waste could be readily turned into compost.  Provided you have the right equipment to create it with, you’ll find the whole process pretty much takes care of itself.

For starters get yourself a compost bin.  These are easily available locally, as are kitchen composters.  These are worth having since it will act as a tabletop reminder to think before you throw anything away.  Add compostable items to the kitchen composter and when it fills up, take it to your garden compost bin and throw it all in.

What can you throw in there?  You’ll often hear people who are into composting talking about greens and browns.  This is a good rule of thumb to remember as a good mix of these will produce the best compost.

When you are cutting your clients’ lawns make sure you clear away all the grass cuttings and take them away with you.  This is one of the green items.  You can also add in smaller weeds that don’t have seeds, and leftovers from pruning, provided they are kept small.  You can put these in your compost bin when you get back home, to recycle the clippings for your compost in future.  Don’t forget the tea and coffee either – this is great for compost.

As for brown items, anything related to paper products is perfectly fine, so all those cardboard tubes and newspapers can go in.  If you have any bedding plants that have only lasted a year and you are taking them out, keep those too.

The faster you fill it up the quicker you will get compost from the bottom of the bin.  You may find that the contents heat up as they start to mash down and combine with each other.  It sometimes pays to take the lid off and reach in to give everything a stir.  This gets it all active, mixes it in and encourages the microbes and other active elements to get going and will lead to it heating up as well.

If you focus on putting a lot of contents in your bin at once, and you turn them and ensure the contents heat up, you could have your first batch of compost in a few short weeks.  But for the most part it might take a year or so to get the results of your active recycling methods.  Either way the results are worth waiting for, and it will save you a fortune in having to buy it as well.

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