How to Compost at Home
Greens, browns, the right balance, turning and patience. The simple RHS-backed way to make free compost and waste nothing.
Greens, browns, the right balance, turning and patience. The simple RHS-backed way to make free compost and waste nothing.
Composting is the closest thing gardening has to magic. You put in the things you would otherwise throw away, peelings, grass, prunings, cardboard, and a few months later you take out rich, dark food for your soil, for nothing. It is the heart of how we garden: reuse what you have got, and work with nature rather than against it.
This guide is the simple, no-nonsense version: what to put in, what to keep out, the one balance that matters, and how to end up with usable compost rather than a slimy heap. It is RHS-backed and beginner-friendly, with no chemicals and no special kit needed.
Composting is not just tidy waste disposal, it is the single best thing you can do for your soil, and it costs nothing. The Royal Horticultural Society treats home composting as a cornerstone of good gardening, for good reason:
This is why "reuse what you have got" is not a slogan for us, it is how we work. We compost and reuse cleared material on site wherever we can rather than hauling it away. Here is how to do the same at home.
Composting is gardening with nature in its purest form. You are not killing anything or buying anything, you are just giving the worms, beetles and microbes the conditions to turn waste back into soil, exactly as happens on a woodland floor. It is the opposite of the bag-and-spray approach.
It is also why we never use chemicals on any garden. A compost heap is alive, and a garden built on home-made compost barely needs the synthetic feeds and treatments that harm the insects and birds we are steadily losing. Make your own compost and you close the loop: less waste out, better soil in, more life all round.
Almost every compost problem comes down to one thing: the balance of greens and browns. Greens are the soft, wet, nitrogen-rich stuff, grass clippings, peelings, leafy waste. Browns are the dry, woody, carbon-rich stuff, cardboard, dead stems, prunings, paper. Too many greens and you get a slimy, smelly sludge. Too many browns and nothing happens for years. Get roughly half and half, leaning to browns, and it more or less composts itself. Master that one ratio and you have mastered composting.
You do not need to overthink this, but a few things make all the difference between rich compost and a problem heap.
Greens (roughly a quarter to a half): grass clippings, vegetable and fruit peelings, tea and coffee grounds, soft green prunings and leafy plants. Browns (roughly a half to three quarters): cardboard and paper (torn up), dead stems and straw, woody prunings chopped or shredded, and autumn leaves.
Keep out: cooked food, meat and fish, which attract rats; perennial weed roots and weed seed heads, which survive and spread; diseased plant material; and dog or cat waste. The RHS is clear that letting any one material dominate, especially grass clippings on their own, is the quickest route to a slimy, smelly mess.
This is the RHS-backed, beginner-friendly method. None of it is difficult, it is mostly about balance and a little patience.
Stand a compost bin or open heap directly on bare soil in light shade. Soil contact lets worms and microbes move in, and light shade stops it baking or staying cold.
Greens are soft, wet and leafy. Browns are dry and woody. You will use both constantly, so keep a stash of browns, torn cardboard is perfect, next to the bin to balance kitchen and grass waste.
Aim for roughly a quarter to a half greens and the rest browns. Add in layers or mix as you go, and whenever you tip in a lot of grass, add a good amount of browns with it.
No cooked food, meat or fish, no perennial weed roots, no weed seed heads, no diseased material. Getting this right keeps rats away and the compost clean to use.
Water it in dry spells, add more browns if it is wet and sludgy. Moisture and air are what the microbes need, this is the single biggest lever on speed.
Mix or turn the heap several times a year with a fork. It adds air, speeds everything up and stops it going anaerobic and smelly. No turning still works, just slower.
After roughly six months to two years it turns dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling. Spread it as a mulch or work it into beds. You have just turned waste into the best thing you can give your soil.
You can start a compost heap at any time of year, there is no season for beginning. What changes is the speed: composting is fastest in the warmth of late spring through summer, and slows right down over winter, which is completely normal.
Autumn is a brilliant time to get going, you have masses of brown material from fallen leaves and cut-back stems, perfect for balancing all the summer greens. A simple turn in spring wakes a winter heap back up.
Do not stop adding to it in winter. It will just sit and tick over slowly, then accelerate again as it warms up. Patience is the only seasonal skill composting needs.
The reassuring truth about composting is that it happens whether you are good at it or not. Organic matter rots, that is not optional. The only question is whether it is fast and pleasant or slow and smelly, and both common problems have one-line fixes.
Slimy and smelly? Too many greens and not enough air. Mix in plenty of torn cardboard or dry browns and give it a turn. Dry and nothing happening? Too many browns or too dry. Add greens and water it. Rats or flies? You are putting in cooked food or meat, stop, and cover fresh kitchen waste with browns. That is essentially the entire troubleshooting guide.
Do not chase perfection. A slightly imperfect heap still turns into good compost, just a bit slower. The only real failure is not starting, or giving up after one slimy week instead of adding browns and carrying on.
Composting is the most DIY job in this whole set of guides, and the most rewarding. Anyone can do it, in any size garden, and the method above is genuinely all there is to it. We would always encourage you to have a go yourself.
Where we come in is the bigger picture: garden maintenance and soil improvement, where we compost and reuse your garden waste on site rather than hauling it away, and turn that finished compost back into your beds. If you would like that handled as part of looking after the garden, a quick message on WhatsApp is the easiest way to talk it through.
Composting at home is the kind of thing we love you to do yourself. Where we help is the bigger picture: as part of garden maintenance and soil improvement we compost and reuse your garden waste on site, then work that goodness back into your beds, rather than hauling it off and trucking bagged compost back in.
Greens (grass clippings, kitchen peelings, fruit and veg, soft green plants) and browns (cardboard, paper, dead stems, straw, shredded woody prunings). The RHS suggests roughly 25 to 50 percent greens to 50 to 75 percent browns.
Avoid cooked food, meat and fish, which attract rats, plus perennial weed roots, weed seed heads, and diseased plant material. Cat and dog waste should also be left out of a normal garden compost heap.
Too many greens, usually grass clippings, and not enough air. The RHS warns grass on its own becomes a slimy mess. Mix in plenty of browns like cardboard and turn it to add air, and the smell goes.
It helps a lot. Turning adds air, which speeds composting and breaks everything down more evenly. The RHS recommends turning several times a year. You can compost without turning, it just takes longer.
Roughly six months to two years depending on the mix, turning and warmth. It is ready when it is dark, crumbly and smells earthy rather than rotten.
On soil, not a hard surface, so worms and soil life can get in, ideally in light shade so it neither bakes nor stays cold. A reasonably accessible spot makes it far more likely you will keep it up.
Where suitable we reuse cleared material on site as mulch or compost rather than hauling it away, which is better for your soil and for wildlife. For ongoing help, garden maintenance and soil improvement cover it, just message us on WhatsApp.
Finished compost is the best mulch there is, see how to mulch a garden bed. And it is exactly what fixes heavy London clay, see how to improve clay soil.
Composting and soil improvement are the heart of how we work. Tell us about your garden on WhatsApp and we will help. No chemicals, no waste hauled off.