The first batch of 'homemade' compost

At the weekend I had to move the compost bin in the back garden - (to make way for 2 more chickens). For the past 18 months we have been putting all our veggie/fruit scraps into the bin and wondering whether it will work.

Well I can say that it has - and with minimal effort.

I thought I would just write down what we did as you hear lots of stories of what you need to do so here is our version. It really has been easy.

When we bought the house we inherited the green compost bin - it is one of the standard issue green ones from the council.

We put it on some lightly dug soil and made sure it was level. For the past 18 months we have added in the following.

• All vegetable peelings (any left over cooked veg gets eaten by Rita & Mavis - our chickens)
• All receipts/bank statements (can't imagine anyone digging in the compost bin to nick my identity)
• Grass cuttings
• Some chicken pooh
• Any rotten fruit

All we have done is buy some compost worms - I bought these for £2 of ebay, and once every 6 months I stuck a garden fork in the top of the bin to mix things up - in total this has taken me 15 mins.

We have had some tiny white flies inside the bin but this is normal and they don't cause any problems.

We have had no problems with rats/foxes etc.

Anyway there we have the first bag of compost, roll on next year!