Composting is a great idea for your self sufficient garden, and the best way to make use of your food scraps and any foliage that has fallen from trees like leaves etc that are lying around your property, the first thing you need is a composting bin these can be purchased from a plant shop and are made from plastic or you can build your own.
Building your own composting bin is easy if you have the right tools, a hand saw, nails and hammer, and is usually constructed from slats of timber, with building your own bin you can make it any size you want to, a basic composting bin has four sides usually around one meter in height and one meter square with the front lower than the other three sides for access, the bin needs ventilation around the sides so just leave a small gap between each slat.
The best position for your composting bin is on a well drained level area where water will not be trapped inside the bin, the best contents to fill your bin with are vegetable peelings, fruit scraps, grass cuttings and plant or tree prunings, you can also put news paper and egg cartons in these will all break down over time.
Items not to go inside a compost bin include meat scraps or any dairy products and no animal dung like sheep or cow dung this type of fertilizer is used separately on your gardens, the best thing for your compost bin is worms these guys break down the waste into a usable material so do not put anything toxic into your compost or you will kill the worms.
Your compost needs airing regularly best to use a garden fork and just mix the layers around this where the news paper helps as the paper keeps air pockets in the compost, you can also make a lid for your compost bin and cover up when you get excessive rain, the compost needs to be moist not full of water, and do not let the compost dry out, if the compost is dry add more green layers like leaves and when too wet add news paper or cardboard to the mix.