We filled some big, strong garbage bags with the leaves mixed with pellatised chicken manure (Yates Dynamic Lifter). We poked a few holes in the bags with the pitch fork and left them to rot. Every now and then we should get out and roll the bags around the courtyard and hopefully, when the sun comes out, they should reduce nicely to rich compost.

We're not good composters. Compost is like bread or yoghurt. It involves nuturing some microscopic organisms and if you don't understand, or don't care what makes the little beasties happy, you will get flat bread and smelly compost.

Our lazy method of composting

1. Put all our kitchen scraps into a cone bin along with the bedding (paper, straw and manure) from the chickens. This slowly fills up over months.
2. When we can't get anymore scraps into the bin, we transfer the lot into a tumbler bin.
3. This we give a half hearted flip everytime we go past to fill the cone bin or feed the chooks.
4. When the cone bin is full again we empty the tumbler onto the garden and start filling the cone bin again.