All guides
Why your compost smells (and the fix for each smell)
A working heap smells like damp earth. Anything sharper is the pile telling you what's wrong.
Compost too wet: soggy, slimy, or dripping
A heap should feel like a wrung-out sponge. If a squeezed handful drips, it's too wet to work properly.
Compost too dry: nothing is happening
If the heap looks exactly as it did a month ago, it has probably dried out and stalled.
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 January is resting, not broken.
Browns and greens: the reference list
Browns give a heap its structure and carbon, greens its moisture and nitrogen — and the balance between them decides how the whole pile behaves.
Rats, flies, and ants in the compost
Rats, flies, and ants are each pointing at a different underlying problem — read them as clues, not just nuisances.