Compost Help
Your compost heap is doing something you didn’t expect, and you want a straight answer, not a course. Pick the symptom below and get a fix you can try today.
Start with your symptom
Why your compost smells (and the fix for each smell)
A healthy compost heap smells like damp earth, not like a farmyard or a drain.
Compost too wet: soggy, slimy, or dripping
If you can wring water out of a handful of compost, it's too wet to work properly.
Compost too dry: nothing is happening
If your heap looks the same as it did a month ago, it's probably too dry to be working at all.
What not to put in a home compost heap
A home compost heap runs cooler than a commercial one, so it can't handle everything a council green-waste scheme can.
Composting through winter
A cold, quiet heap in winter is normal — it's resting, not broken.
Browns and greens: the reference list
Browns give a compost heap its structure and carbon; greens give it moisture and nitrogen.
Rats, flies, and ants in the compost
Each pest in a compost heap is pointing at a different underlying problem — treat them as clues, not just nuisances.