Community News

Back in the early 20th century, Sir Albert Howard (often called the father of modern organic agriculture) brought the Indore method of hot composting from the farms of India and China to a ‘western’ audience. Hot composting, as we now practise it, is a direct descendant of that work. Howard was born in Shropshire, England,…

Can I put wood ash from my fire in the compost? It’s a question we are often asked here at YIMBY. As with anything involving living systems, the answer is never an easy ‘yes’ or ‘no’. So, let’s have a little dive into ash and its potential uses. Ash is the non-combustible residue that is…

Managing the outputs of a cool compost bin can get complicated, particularly if we only have one bin, where we can find ourselves with finished compost in the bottom and fresh food scraps at the top. Cool composting is so much easier if we have two bins that can rotate functions, an active one for…

I’ll let you in on a little compost secret. A well set up cool composting bin and a worm-farm are pretty indistinguishable. Scandalous, I know, but here’s the reason why. Good compost is made with a good balanced blend of materials (if you have missed it you can read up on our favourite topic at…

The logic of compost tumblers goes like this: Lack of aeration makes compost piles stinky and slow. By turning the compost regularly, we add air through the pile and the compost will break down faster and not smell. Sounds good… in theory. If our approach to composting is to ‘Tip and Run’, a tumbler will…