The perfect recipe for a blooming marvellous garden!

Landfills across the country are running out of space but Waste Awareness Wales is encouraging people to adopt a practice that won’t just help banish millions of tonnes of landfill waste each year, but will also help create blooming marvellous gardens!

Waste Awareness Wales is supporting Compost Awareness Week 2007 (6 – 12 May) – a week set up by the Composting Association – and is keen to illustrate to the people of Wales that composting is a great way to do your bit for the environment.

At least 30% of what goes into an average dustbin can be composted at home. Dubbed ‘nature’s way of recycling’, composting is a natural process that turns kitchen and garden waste into rich, good quality soil conditioner which will help retain moisture and suppress weeds.

Like any recipe, the compost relies on the right ingredients to make it work. All you have to do is make sure you have a good mix of ‘fast rotters’ and ‘slow rotters’ in your compost bin:

• Things that rot quickly are soft, wet and high in nitrogen. These include fruit/vegetable peelings and cores, tea and coffee, grass cuttings and plant prunings
  
• Things that rot slowly are hard, dry and high in carbon. These include cardboard egg boxes, scrap paper, fallen leaves, twigs and branches
  
• Your compost needs to be moist – but not wet - with air pockets... So, if you notice it becomes too wet add more ‘slow rotters’, and if it’s too dry add ‘fast rotters’!  Every now and then add more scrunched bits of card or lift with a fork. Worms like broken egg shells too – as they create pockets to hide in!
  
• Things to keep out of your composting bin include meat, bones and dairy products, cooked vegetables, processed food, diseased plants, weeds and animal faeces

Councillor Richard Parry Hughes, chairperson for Waste Awareness Wales, commented:

"We’ve been supporting this international campaign for years because composting kitchen and garden waste is probably one of the most effective things people can do to reduce the amount of rubbish they throw away.

"Everyone can get involved, from the green-fingered to those without a garden.  By following the right recipe, composting is simple.  A lot of local authorities are now getting involved by providing subsidised home composting bins.   I encourage everyone to have a go this year; not only for the sake of the environment but also help create blooming great gardens across Wales!"