Garden Composting in a Small Garden

Clare |

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Creating your own garden compost is no doubt, easiest when you have a large garden. Firstly it means you have lots of organic matter to put into your garden composter. Secondly it means you can have multiple compost bins and can hide them out of site.

Garden composting in a small garden is still perfectly viable, and indeed desirable. Reducing the organic matter we send to landfill is important no matter what size your backyard is. Choosing a garden composter for a small garden does take a little more thought though.

Basic plastic compost bins are ideally suited to small spaces. Purchase a square sided one which will take up the least amount of space. Keep it a dark colour, which will appear further away in a small garden, and will help the compost rot more quickly as it absorbs more heat from the sun. But, remember at some point these bins will fill and then you need somewhere else to put your organic waste. Two basic compost bins are the ideal solution and still relatively cheap, but of course, this is only if you have enough space for two.

If you really can only fit one garden compost bin into your yard, make it one which produces compost quickly. Compost tumblers are ideal for a small garden. They make compost in a matter of weeks, leaving you little time when you have no bin in which to deposit waste. Perhaps even more useful in a small space are multi-chamber compost bins. These allow decomposing waste to fall into different chambers, meaning you always have space in which to deposit more kitchen scraps and garden waste at the top. Once they are established these provide a continual source of rotted garden compost in their lowest chamber.

Backyard tumblers can be found with two chambers (one for filling while the other is digesting), but they will take up much more room. The multi-chamber static compost bin is a preferred option in small spaces as the chambers are stacked vertically rather than horizontally.