Author: Denise Lane-Edwards

Here is a useful list of all the things that can help make great compost:

Green / wet materials / nitrogen

• Fruit and veggie scraps
• Egg shells
• Tea bags, tea leaves
• Fresh green grass clippings and plant trimmings grown without pesticides or weed killers 
• Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses 
• Poultry manure and bedding
  
• Flowers from arrangements

Brown / dry materials / carbon

• Dry leaves, dried grass clippings
• Wood shavings or sawdust
• Nuts shells but not walnuts they are toxic
• Coffee grounds and filters (coffee grounds can also be placed directly around chives)
• Shredded newspaper and tissue paper not colured paper toxins contained in the ink
• Twigs
• Hay and straw – Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs
• Cold wood ashes
• Tumble dryer lint
• Shredded cereal boxes, egg boxes and other paperboard items like toilet rolls inserts kitchen towel roll inserts
• Hair after a hair cut or from cleaning your hair brush
• Hoover bag contents (I love this the best)
• Wine corks
  

I have 2 compost bins in the kitchen one for scraps and one for egg shells we use a lot of eggs I crunch the shells around the bulbs as the poke the heads up through the ground and mostly around the hostas. In the bathroom I have another compost bin that came about from a conversation with a friend about toilet roll inserts bizarre but amazing how much brown stuff is created from the bathroom toilet roll inserts and small cardboard boxes from new products, hair from the trap in the bath, hair from the hair brush it soon adds up by the time you have emptied the paper shredder you have a good mix on a weekly basis

Things definitely not to compost

• Meat, dairy and cooked food will attract vermin and should not be home composted you cannot build up enough heat
• Coal & coke ash to toxic
• Cat litter and Dog faeces