The Compost & Soil Starter Kit

Choose your composting method

There’s a method for every space, from a balcony to acreage. Pick the one that fits your room and how hands-on you want to be.

Method	Space	Effort	Speed	Best for
Cold heap	Any yard	Low	Slow (6–12 mo)	Hands-off — just pile and wait
Hot pile	~1 m³ of room	Higher (turning)	Fast (weeks–months)	Quick compost; heat kills weed seeds
Tumbler	Small yard / patio	Low–medium	Medium	Tidy, rodent-resistant, easy to turn
Worm bin	Balcony / under sink	Low	Medium	Kitchen scraps, no yard — rich castings
Bokashi	Kitchen bench	Low	Ferment, then bury	Handles cooked food, meat & dairy (needs bran)
Trench / dig-in	Garden beds	Low	Slow (in situ)	Bury scraps straight in a trench — zero kit

No yard? You can still compost

A worm bin under the sink or a bokashi bucket on the bench turns kitchen scraps into rich food for pots and planters — no garden required.

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The Compost & Soil Starter Kit

Greens, browns & the balance

Compost is really just the right mix of "greens" (wet, nitrogen) and "browns" (dry, carbon), kept damp and given air.

Greens (nitrogen)

Veg & fruit scraps
Coffee grounds & tea
Fresh grass clippings
Green, leafy prunings
Herbivore manure (aged)

Browns (carbon)

Dry autumn leaves
Cardboard & paper (torn)
Straw & hay
Untreated sawdust / wood chip
Egg boxes & toilet rolls

The only ratio you need to remember

Aim for roughly 2–3 parts browns to 1 part greens by volume. Then trust your nose: smelly? add browns. Dry and doing nothing? add greens and water.

Leave these out (home piles)

Meat, fish, dairy, oily food (unless bokashi)
Dog, cat or human waste
Diseased plants
Perennial weeds & seed heads (unless hot composting)
Glossy or plastic-coated paper

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The Compost & Soil Starter Kit

Troubleshooting a sulky pile

Almost every compost problem is one of four things — and all are easily fixed.

Smelly or slimy: Too wet, or too much green. Mix in plenty of browns, turn it, and cover.
Not heating / doing nothing: Too dry, too small, or short on nitrogen. Water it, add greens, build it bigger, and turn.
Pests (rats, flies): Bury food scraps under a layer of browns, use a lidded or enclosed bin, and leave out meat/dairy.
Too slow: Chop material smaller, turn more often, and keep it as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

Turning adds air and speeds everything up, but a cold heap will get there on its own if you’re patient. There’s no wrong pace.

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The Compost & Soil Starter Kit

Read your soil & go no-dig

Before you buy amendments, ask your soil what it needs. A few free tests tell you most of it.

Jar test: Half-fill a jar with soil, top with water, shake, and let it settle. Sand sinks first, then silt, then clay on top — the layers show your soil type.
Squeeze test: Squeeze a handful of damp soil: crumbles apart = sandy; forms a shiny ribbon = clay; holds softly then breaks = loam.
Drainage test: Dig a hole, fill with water, let it drain, fill again and time it. Very fast = sandy/dry; very slow = heavy/compacted.
pH: A cheap test kit tells you acid vs alkaline. Most veg are happiest around pH 6.0–7.0.
Read the weeds: Docks & buttercup hint at wet, compacted ground; nettles at rich soil; moss at damp, acidic or shady spots.

No-dig quick-start

Lay overlapping cardboard over grass or weeds (remove any tape), wet it well, and top with 5–10 cm of compost. Plant straight into the compost. Each year, just add more compost on top — the worms do the digging, and the weeds stay down.

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The Compost & Soil Starter Kit

Soil & compost log

A quick note now saves guesswork next season.

What I added, and where

Bed / area	Added (compost, mulch, manure, lime…)	Date

Compost batches

Started	Method	Ready?	Notes

haventheapp.com — build your soil, at your own pace