Composting is a cheap, natural process that transforms your food and garden waste into a valuable and nutrient rich fertiliser for your garden. It's easy to make and use. You can read more about composting on the Recycle Now website.
Buy a composter
You can compost at home using a compost heap, a homemade system, or a standard compost bin. Cornwall Council has teamed up with Get Composting to provide great value compost bins and accessories.
Water butts
Get Composting also offer a selection of great value water butts so you can store up rain water for use in your garden, cleaning your windows or to wash your car rather than using chargeable water from the tap.
Reducing your garden waste
Grass cuttings
Leave them on the lawn. After a couple of days they will dry out and be absorbed into the lawn or the worms will take them down into the soil. Converting an area of grass into a wildflower meadow is also great for bees and beneficial to insects.
Weeds
Mulching: spread a layer of material such as gravel, bark chips, stone chippings, or compost over the top of any bare soil to stop weeds growing.
Get them young: If weeds are removed when they are young seedlings they can just be left to dry out and disappear.
Ground cover plants: If you cover the soil with plants, they will exclude light from the potential weeds and prevent them growing.
Right plant in the right place
It is important to think carefully about the plants that are placed into the garden. To avoid lots of maintenance and also cut down on waste, choose slow growing varieties that need minimum pruning and will not outgrow the space.
Wildlife loves mess!
To encourage wildlife into the garden, keep an area for them to rest and hide. Make a woodpile of bigger branches or logs covered with smaller prunings with spaces for hedgehogs, frogs and toads to live and hide. They will repay you by eating garden pests. Old bamboo tied up in a bundle will encourage ladybirds and bees to set up home and a patch of nettles will bring in the butterflies. Also consider planting native species that will provide birds and insects with food and shelter.
