Life

The Casual Gardener: How to bank 'black gold'

A new book explains all you need to know about composting

How to Make and Use Compost by Nicky Scott is published by Green Books
How to Make and Use Compost by Nicky Scott is published by Green Books How to Make and Use Compost by Nicky Scott is published by Green Books

NICKY Scott – AKA Dr Compost – dedicates his new book not to his parents, partner or mentor but to the “countless millions of microorganisms that are so often maligned – it’s the same old story: a few bad bacteria give all the rest a bad name”.

It perfectly sets the tone for this short, engaging and informative book on the green gardener’s greatest ally – homemade compost.

Scott’s interest in composting dates back decades. While still at school he worked for Dick Kitto – hardly a household name these days but in1960s and 70s the late English author and educationalist was an organic gardening pioneer. Kitto’s protégé has been fascinated by ‘black gold’ ever since, establishing community composting groups and helping develop and trial a variety of food-waste composting systems. He’s also written a number of books on the subject, of which How to Make and Use Compost is the latest.

Scott is an activist, teacher and mild-mannered eco evangelist. His passion for compost extends beyond its practical application as a fertiliser and soil conditioner, dovetailing with his interest in sustainability and recycling, as detailed in his previous book Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

“We need to live within the resources of the planet we live on, and composting has a big part to play,” he writes.

“Everything that has been made falls into one of two recycling loops – the ?rst is a ‘technological’ loop for all metals, plastics and other man-made substances.

“We can’t do anything apart from separate this material out for recycling, but we can do a lot with the second loop – the ‘bio’ loop of biodegradable stuff.”

Composting is easy and fun, it saves you money and helps you grow great plants – that’s the essence of this book but the insights, ideas and inspiration that flow from its pages lift it far beyond the ostensibly mundane practice of leaving dead stuff in a pile to rot.

At its most basic level, it’s creating a heap with twigs and leaves rather than disposing of them in a brown bin. This’ll be good for wildlife and will take at least a couple of years to be transformed into a dark, friable material. But as Scott enthusiastically spells out, it’s a process that can be scaled-up, accelerated and refined, creating a vital and versatile resource for the sustainable gardener who seeks to reduce reliance on commercial composts.

For big spaces and small, the book walks us through every step of the composting process; feeding your heap or bin a healthy diet; achieving optimum performance; and what not o do – unless you’re aim is to create a warm, nitrogen-rich, green slime that will do plants more harm than good.

“It is important to balance out the air-to-water ratio in your compost heap,” Scott writes.

“Fresh grass cuttings are a great way to add water (and heat) to a heap; they are very ‘green’, full of water and high in nitrogen, so they start to compost very readily. However, they can very quickly become a sludgy mess.” Cardboard, and other ‘brown’ carbon-based materials are required to offset the ‘green’ material in this instance.

This and many more solutions that’ll help you master the alchemical creation of ‘black gold’ are contained herein. A smattering of accessible science and mini-wildlife explainers, with chapters on wormeries and liquid feeds, concluding with an extensive A-Z guide – compost publishing doesn’t get any better.

How to Make and Use Compost by Nicky Scott is published by Green Books and is available from booksellers via this link.