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Success with composting depends on heat, biology and a good balance of ingredients in your compost bin. Adding in approximately 10cm. layers 'Green waste' (grass, border and hedge trimmings, snipped or shredded woody prunings) heats up steamily, starts to break down rapidly and can be stirred into layers below to speed everything up. 'Brown waste' (e.g. shredded paper, packaging and straw) should be added at regular intervals to counteract the wetness of the greenery and will rot down too

Many gardeners and allotment holders will be reviewing their composting activities and aiming to save money by producing more of the nutrient-rich home made stuff.

The clocks have gone back, the days are growing shorter and the big autumn tidy up is well under way. However the weather has been unseasonably mild which has meant some plants are still producing a crop at a time when they would normally have been consigned to the compost bin. We are still harvesting courgettes at the end of October in Stephanie?s Kitchen Garden.

The trees surrounding Stephanie's Kitchen Garden are now almost bare, so this week we will have more time to spend on jobs other than clearing up leaves. Our next big tidy up will be inside the greenhouse, where many plants have now gone over. Last week we harvested the last of our cucumbers and the plants are now ready for the compost bin.

Seems I'm in good composting company, judging by this article I came across in the Daily Telegraph...

The ComposTumbler uses a unique process which can make compost in as little as 14 days. You can make compost in 3 easy steps with a ComposTumbler.

Hot on the heels of my Master Composter course follows this press release, re-inforcing the importance of the initative and the role the partnership organisations play, along with publicising the fact that Harrod Horticultural now have a compost guru on board!

All is quiet in the kitchen garden at the moment and we are making the most of the good weather days to mulch the bare soil with well-rotted manure or home-made compost. Over the coming months this will be broken down by the worms and the cold weather ready for digging over in the Spring.

With Christmas over, and the annual trawl through the seed catalogues almost complete, the thoughts of most gardeners turn to sowing and growing once again - and that means peat free seed compost.

Being a Master Composter, you could say compost-wise I've seen it, done it and got the T-shirt - and now, quite literally, I have!

Here at Stephanie's Kitchen Garden this week we will be emptying our compost bins ready to begin filling them up again throughout the summer.

Home composting can seem overwhelming and mysterious, but in reality, it's a simple process that almost everyone can use effectively. With little more than fallen leaves and kitchen scraps you can make dark, nutrient-rich compost that will work wonders for your garden. What is more, you'll be helping the environment in the process too.

The temperatures have dropped, the days are getting shorter, and the lawn is covered by a blanket of golden yellow and rich orange hues. Autumn has arrived. Now is the perfect time to prepare your garden for the cold, dark weather that lies ahead. Here's everything you should do to ensure your garden remains in tip-top condition ready for a vibrant spring

The big autumn tidy up continues this week in Stephanie's Kitchen Garden as we turn our attention to our bean supports. The bean plants have been shedding their leaves over the past few weeks and are now skeletons of the plants they once were.

This week in Kitchen Garden we will be pruning our blackcurrant bushes; the plants are now beginning to shed their leaves and showing signs of dormancy so it is an ideal time to give them their annual haircut.