11/03/2026
Charlene Grandmaison
Did you know you can make your own garden fertilizer at home with very minimal effort?
There are many different ways to compost (including indoor for those who live in apartments or have limited space outdoors). The method you choose depends on the space you have, how committed you will be to taking care of it (paying attention to moisture levels as well as keeping a proper ratio of brown to green waste) and how eager you are to have a finished product.
Over the winter months, I offer workshops on a variety of different topics, including all of the different ways to compost so I won’t go into a long explanation of the various methods here but just wanted to show you my set up.
I practise what is called cold or passive composting. Not because it is the best method, it actually takes the longest to get a finish product, but simply because it is the most hands-off method and I don’t have a lot of time to babysit my compost.
We have four different open compartments at the very back of our two acre property. Once the first section is full, we move onto the next and then the next, and then the next. By the time, the fourth compartment is full, the first compartment is usually ready to use and we just continue the cycle. 
What goes in?
-All kitchen scraps (excluding meat)
-Leaves
-Yard waste as long as there is no pest infestation, w**d seed or disease
-cardboard and other plain paper products
-manure when my husband cleans out the bird lofts
-wood ash if we have a bon fire
When we start a new compartment, I throw a few shovelfuls of finished compost in to get things started because it is full of worms and beneficial microbes that will help things break down faster.
It’s not fancy, but it’s functional and my gardens thank me for it!

