Compost ingredients, to make the
most balanced compost
For More information go to
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicgardening/compost_pf.php
Compost ingredients
'Greens' or nitrogen rich ingredients
- Urine (diluted with water 20:1)
- Comfrey leaves
- Nettles
- Grass cuttings
Other green materials
- Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen
- Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds
- Young green weed growth – avoid weeds with seeds
- Soft green prunings
- Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses
- Poultry manure and bedding
'Browns' or carbon rich ingredients - slow to rot
- Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes
- Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential
waste
- Cardboard tubes
- Glossy magazines – although it is better for the environment to
pass them on to your local doctors’ or dentists' surgery or send
them for recycling
- Newspaper – although it is better for the environment to send
your newspapers for recycling
- Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs – hay,
straw, shredded paper, wood shavings
- Tough hedge clippings
- Woody prunings
- Old bedding plants
- Bracken
- Sawdust
- Wood shavings
- Fallen leaves can be composted but the best use of them is to
make leafmould
Other compostable items
- Wood ash, in moderation
- Hair, nail clippings
- Egg shells (crushed)
- Natural fibres eg. 100% wool or cotton
Do NOT compost
- Meat
- Fish
- Cooked food
- Coal & coke ash
- Cat litter
- Dog faeces
- Disposable
nappies