I'm a composting virgin and I don't know where to begin.

[KatieMiddleton]

I live in London just off a high street and have a small garden. I would like to make my own compost but I have a very, very tiny space available (so a heap and forking are impossible) and I'm worried about attracting rats.

I have a small amount of grass cuttings, prunings and kitchen waste I'd like to compost. The contraption would be visible from the paved bit of the garden so nothing too ugly if possible.

I am wondering about a compost turner or hot composter, but really, I have no clue and Googling has just confused me further. Please help!

How about a wormery? Easy to keep, the best compost, doesn't have to be forked or turned, can be kept quite small or you can add extra layers to the top if you have a lot of waste and something like

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wormery-Store-5-Tray-Black-Stacking-Wormery-Coir-bedding-/170850483378?pt=UK_Home_Garden_GardenEquipment_HandTools_SM&hash=item27c77b7cb2#ht_3732wt_1193

can look quite good in a small garden

Well worth doing a compost even in a small garden...they don't look too bad, consider the 'bin' as part of the garden furniture. You could grow bamboo or similar to create a green screen. Try to site in sun as the heat will help the process, set up on earth so the good worms can access and avoid bread, meat and eggshells to avoid rats. I had a rat once due to eggshells, stopped putting them in, rat went. We've mice in ours at the moment, we live in a fairly rural area so to be expected. I don't mind mice, never seen them just their droppings. Good luck and happy composting! (your black bins will be much lighter without all the peelings, toilet roll inners and occasional tea towel put in it!) :)

There seems to be some kind of conspiracy in the gardening world to make composting seem hard; all this talk of recipes and proportions. If you want to make compost quickly then you do have to work at it, but if you are prepared to treat your garden compost bin as a kind of dustbin that eventually yields dividends then it's really really easy and VERY satisfying.

1. Get a compost bin from your council, they will do some kind of cheap deal on one. Make sure it sits on bare earth so the worms can come up and work your compost bin.
2. Recognise that eventually you will need a second compost bin when the first is full. By the time you've filled the second one the first will be done.

If you don't have space for two of your council bins then you will need to consider something smaller, maybe make two of your own from wood. Small bins don't work as well.

1. Into your compost bin throw any of the following as and when they are available to you: grass clippings, paper shreddings (get a paper shredder now), dead plants, compost from old pots or grow bags, vegetable peelings, egg boxes. Don't worry about proportions or mixing them up (you can if you want), in a normal household you will have a mix of these that will rot down fairly happily, even if it takes a bit longer.
2. Don't put in stuff rats will like to eat: any cooked food, leftover pet food, eggshells. They only move in if you serve them dinner.
3. Don't put in anything too big to rot down: big twigs, whole newspapers, lots of very dry leaves. Chop them up a lot and make sure they are damp.
4. Decide how you feel about recycling weeds round your garden. You can happily put in leaves from anything; if you put back seed heads then they may just get spread round the garden when you use your compost; if you put in fleshy roots like dandelions they may just carry on growing. Or they may not.
5. when you put stuff in put the lid back on to keep it warm and working. If it looks all dry (e.g. layer of paper shreddings on top) you can leave the lid off until it rains and looks nice and wet then put the lid back on again
6. the amount in it will keep shrinking - you'll think it's full then go back and it will have shrunk a bit. Just keep filling it up until you really feel it's absolutely full and you want to start the next one
7. put on the lid and completely ignore it until the next bin is full. Like for a year. If you really want to you can stir it up a bit every so often with a garden fork, or just admire it or worry about it, but really just leaving it alone will do too. It will keep shrinking. Resist the temptation to put more stuff in at this stage. Ideally it will have an excellent population of pink worms that are doing the work for you.

10. eventually you will open the bin and realise the magic has happened and you now have beautifully compost. whisk the bin off the finished compost and spread it round your garden good and deep or use it when you are planting new plants or whatever, and bask in the deep deep smugness of being a home composter

The wooden beehive composters are very attractive and blend in beautifully.

I got one and love it.

In fact, next time I'd get a beehive wormery compost like this one as I reckon it'd be even more efficient at reducing everything to compost quickly

compare.ebay.co.uk/like/190677463633?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts. I don't have room for more than one composter (and that's pushing it a bit). My council have a very limited choice of ugly plastic cone or overpriced crate. Alternatively there is the wormery that looks like a BBQ...

We currently recycle all our paper and card but perhaps I should keep some of it for the compost heap or I think it might smell if it's just green wet stuff??

I will avoid adding anything other than kitchen peelings to avoid attracting vermin.

Or maybe a wormery!

I suppose buying a composter for looks is ok if I just fill it up with a few bits. We also have garden waste recycling but it costs a fortune and the bags keep splitting. It's handy for weed seed heads though.

If you want to compost all kitchen waste then a wormary is the best bet as you can also compost cooked foods.

If you go for just a compost bin then you need a mix of green and brown in it for the brown add some old loo rolls or shredded paper or cardboard.

And dont forget the best way to add nitrogen to your compost is to have a wee in it.