Of the gardening books I received this Christmas, The Little Book of Compost is the most intriguing. It’s a small book, published by Collins and the Centre for Alternative Technology. It’s written by Allan Shepherd, a man who loves compost so much that he blogs about it.
It’s printed in two colours – black and a natty shade of orange. There are no glossy pictures here to distract you from the important work of composting, but that doesn’t mean that this is a stuffy read.
In fact, the whole book is laid out like a recipe plan for a party. The first page shows the menu; Starter, Main Course, Side Dishes, Dessert and Drinks are all laid out for you. Once you’ve chosen the compost ‘dish’ you want to make then you just turn to the relevant chapter.
The point of all this tomfoolery is that you can invite composting organisms into your garden, and once they arrive you can make sure they’re well fed and happy – as any good host would do.
For beginners there’s a recap of the golden rule of composting (the all important browns to greens ratio), a rundown of who is likely to come to your party and how to insure you cater to their needs.
Then you’re straight into the recipes: composting in a bag, the full story on CAT cold composting, Bokashi, worm composting, hot heaps, green manures and homemade liquid feeds.
It’s a wonder they managed to pack it all in to such a small space. If you’re new to composting, or you want all your information in one place then this is definitely a composting book to shortlist.