A soapbox made of pallets

Composting Day for local greeners. Dave is a crusader for the No-Dig school of horticulture and believes that,  after centuries of tilling the land, disrupting the structure of the soil, removing nutrients by weeding, cutting down and 'clearing up', adding chemicals in the form of weedkillers and fertilisers, taking out natural growth, planting exotic species or those unsuited to the location, buying annuals, using horticultural peat extracted  for the purpose and insisting on tidy gardens with smooth lawns and impressive floral displays... 

... after this we face the prospect in the West of starting to run out of fertile land on which to grow crops in about 60 years. Well beyond the life time of his listeners but not of their grandchildren.

Anyway, for the meantime Dave instructed us on how to create a proper compost bin with the correct balance of nitrogen approx. 70% nitrogen (green stuff kitchen waste, lawn clippings, weeds) to approx. 30% carbon (brown stuff such dry leaves, wood chippings, coffee ground, cardboard). He shreds every single bit of (unprinted) cardboard that comes into his house to add to his compost which he uses to mulch but never  to 'dig in'. Mulch suppresses 'weeds' and nourishes the soil without disrupting it. 

Although I do compost all the above I suspect I haven't paid enough attention to the balance of N to C. I could do better.

There's lots of online information about making compost.  Here's one that's easy to follow.