Allotment - the Where, When, Why and How - What can I compost?

Autumn leaves - These are a completely free and wonderful source of soil nourishment. Store dry leaves to mix with grass mowings and other soft green stuff to give a lighter compost or make larger quantities into leaf-mould by packing wet leaves into black plastic sacks (loosely tied), or a wire mesh container. Use after a year or two.

Grass clippings - Mix these well with tougher items or dry leaves to avoid making a slimy layer in the bin.

Diseased material - persistent diseases, such as white rot and clubroot, are best kept out of the compost bin but a hot heap, turned several times, should deal with everything else. Remember that heat is not the only factor that will kill diseases - the intense microbial activity will also help to dispose of them. Some perennial weeds will be killed in a hot heap but always avoid really persistent nasties like celandine, bulbous buttercup, ground elder and bindweed. Some weed seeds may survive a cool heap, but should be killed in a hot one - there's a way round this, if your compost tends to grow weeds, dig it well into the soil rather than spreading it on the surface.

Prunings - you need to chop or shred tough prunings and clippings from evergreen hedges before adding them to a compost heap. Compost large quantities separately because even unshredded they will rot eventually or in a mixed heap, combine them with grass or other activating material and water well.

Horse and cattle manure composts fantastically - try to keep a sack on hand to bulk up other ingredients in your heap. Small pets, like hamsters or mice, don't produce many droppings but you can still use their waste as an addition to the compost heap. Guinea pigs are marvellous - they love eating weeds and convert them into great mini-manure. If you don't have one, ask your local school or your neighbours - they will be thrilled to give you their cage cleanings!

Newspaper - can be added to a compost heap, not on any quantity. Avoid glossy paper and colour print which are slow to break down as are sawdust and wood shavings which should be added in small quantities and balanced with faster decomposing materials.

Compost bin allotment photograph writer's own