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As environmental issues are brought to the forefront and a movement to look after our world gains in strength, the importance of making our home gardens havens for wildlife is being talked about. Creating spaces that are beautiful and promote wildlife habitats is pretty simple with lots of brilliant advice available in gardening magazines, from environmental charities and organisations such as the RHS.
Having your own compost heap is one great way to garden organically, re-use food, garden, and certain household waste, and create compost that is rich in nutrients, insects and all the bacteria and micro-organisms that provide essential links in the ‘circle of life’.
My old compost bin was an inherited big plastic thing. Really practical but ugly so I was glad that it sat behind a big shed and out of sight. My first yield of compost gold this year was a triumphant moment and it brings me great pleasure when I see my plants thriving in organic matter that I made for them!
Personally I would always go for a timber compost heap and there are so many lovely designs available that you’re a bit spoilt for choice.
The first timber composter featured is a Forest Beehive Compost Bin. We had enough space in our garden to put in two so we could use up even more food and garden waste, keeping a steady supply of organic compost for our garden.Â
They’re a fairly expensive option but are so well made out of really good quality timber, beautifully designed, and very practical, so that they’ll last decades and look like a feature in the garden rather than an unsightly smelly heap.
Definitely a worthwhile long-term investment that will bring a smile to your face every time you look at it.
The middle compost bin was hand made using leftover timber from the oak decking featured in the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show Flood Resilient Garden, designed by garden designer, journalist and author Naomi Slade and Dr Ed Barsley, founder of The Environmental Design Studio.
This is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly option but if you don’t have leftover timber hanging around, new timber can be very expensive to buy so getting one from a shop or manufacturer can work out cheaper.
The composter featured at the bottom is made by Zest 4 Leisure and available from many garden centres and online stores. It’s of a traditional slatted design and a low affordable price so you can have two (if space allows) giving you a constant flow of compost.
Timber composters will always last years longer if you paint them with a high-performing wood paint, like ours! Cheaper timber will rot quicker so use the pennies you’ve saved to buy a tin of wood paint. Greatly extending the life of timber products is another easy way to help the environment.
Painting with a wood paint also makes them look a lot prettier. You can select a colour that will turn them into a feature or one that helps them blend and disappear into the garden.
The Beehive Compost Bins from Forest Garden Products were such a great design we just couldn’t resist.
Not only do they look great, but the practical design was also a winner. The large roof is hinged and opens up to allow you to easily put large amounts of garden waste in at a time and closes firmly to keep out rodents. Access from the bottom also makes it easy to get your compost out when it’s ready to spread.
It’s made from pressure treated softwood with a 15-year guarantee against rot and fungal decay. This treatment won’t protect the wood from the weather though so it’s always a good idea to paint with a high-quality wood paint to stop the rain from damaging the timber, causing swelling, splitting and staining.
We fully embraced the bee theme, painting with Thorndown’s Blackdown Wood Paint with Mudgley Mustard on one and Sundowner Orange on the other.
The roof came in one piece and the rest assembled out of slatted pieces, so it was a lot easier to paint before constructing to make sure that every piece of the timber was painted and fully protected.
Two coats offers full exterior protection with a third making the coating harder wearing and extending the years before a maintenance coat is required. With roofs and horizontal surfaces, especially on garden items that will be used a lot we would recommend applying 3 coats but in this case, we only painted on two.
It was really easy to construct then it was ready to fill. We started with a layer of plain cardboard ripped into smaller pieces to help it rot down quicker, then put a layer of mown grass clippings on top, layering with another pile of torn up cardboard, more grass clipping, food waste and some sprinkles of ash from the fire.
In 6 months to a year the compost will be ready to dig out and use in the garden, and in the meantime, we can enjoy looking at two beautiful busy beehives in the garden!
If you have some leftover timber, the skill, tools and time to make your own, then this can be a deeply satisfying build.
In the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show ‘Flood Resilient Garden’ created by Naomi Slade and Dr Ed Barsley, there was a charming compost heap nestled within the planting.
They painted it with a diluted wash of our Cavepool Grey Wood Paint giving it an aged and weathered timber look. The rustic design and detailing look wonderful and it really compliments the natural and vibrant planting it is surrounded by.
Thanks to Naomi Slade for supplying the lovely photos!
This customer wanted to refurbish and refresh her old composter as the old coating had worn away and the panels were covered in algae. After emptying the compost over her flower beds she set to taking apart and sorting out the timber sections. Painting over dirt or algae will mean that the paint will be blocked from fixing to the timber so she fired up her power sander and stripped the panels back to fresh wood.
She selected Blackthorn Wood Paint as had just painted her boundary fencing in the same colour. This natural dark wood tone compliment planting beautifully and helps borders and the composter disappear. For external timber we always recommend two coats of wood paint to produce the hardest-eating longest-lasting coating.
Our wood paint contains encapsulated algae inhibitors that become active when algae tries to grow. They effectively inhibit the growth of algae and being encapsulated, won’t leach into the ground.
The finished result is a very attractive composter that will last for many years, producing countless yields of fresh, healthy home-grown compost.
