First time composting

Keep a look on freecycle plastic Daleks come up on a regular basis. I compost all year, but the amount of material reduces a lot in the winter. I make sure I cut up everything to assist my worm buddies and just keep piling it in and topping it up. once in a while I may form holes with a steel rod and re prime with coffee grounds but that's more or less it. See Alans Allotment: compost for compost related posts on my diary.

I let the worms and nature take their time, and I think I get better compost for it, so my advice would be don't rush it let the worms and microbes do their thing for you. Twigs take a long time to rot down so you may have to sieve your compost and stick the larger stuff back in if you take it too early.

Composting is a bit of an art / science.
You need a mixture of brown and green - so think cardboard/twigs - grass/foliage//veg scraps
There's not all that much that you can plant out now so getting your compost bins sorted out is a useful thing to do now.
In warmer weather things will rot down sooner but you might as well get things going now and learn a bit about it all.
I'd start by taking veg waste from the kitchen, wrapping it in newspaper and adding it to you compost bin - you are basically trying to speed up something that will happen anyway (rotting down)
If you get the mix about right and your compost bin get a bit of sun you should get some useful stuff for spring/summer

Thank you cadalot and baldy for the quick reply. I am going to do it tomorrow. Saved some vegetable scraps, and autumn leaves.

You're welcome. You can get quite obsessed about compost - lots of info on the interrnet...

I took over a really well-maintained plot last May, and I now have about a cubic metre of well-rotted compost that's ready to use.

Should I put it on the bits of the plot I think will want it this year (potatoes/brassicas) now, or wait until nearer planting time ?

I also have a second compost heap that just has (very!) fresh chicken compost in, so I'm guessing I need to leave this for a while to break down. Could I put this straight on say the potato plot now, or is it still too close to planting time for this year and will still be too fresh when I plant first earlies ?

Sorry in advance, but I'm a complete newbie, and I'm liable to be firing off random questions so thanks for everyone's help in advance

Well rotted can be dug in and used NOW.

Fresh chicken carp is unsuitable as it is full of nitrogen and will kill seeds/plants. Leave it to fester for at least 3 months..and then leave it in a heap open to the weather for a month before using it...

Your Jan/Feb kitchen waste can go directly into a trench for your runner beans!

Thanks Mad

I thought I had read somewhere that if the compost (rotted down plant matter) was well-rotted you should only put it on a few weeks before planting or the nutrients would leak away or something.

But I must admit that doesn't seem to make sense, looking at it now.

Some stuff might wash out, but compost as a mulch provides a nice place and food for the worms to enjoy. And worms are good!

Digging in a lot of compost is probably something most of us can't do! There's never that much compost even if you compost tons of stuff.

You can sheet compost - just throw stuff on the grow and it mulches and rots where it was picked from.

Urine can be used as an accelerator. Luckily my bins are out of sight of the neighbours and it saves me a long walk to the house.

Another use for old milk containers?!

There are still plenty of locations full of fallen leaves that can be gatherred and bagged or put in a 'wire cage' to make leaf mould. This takes a while though but do it while the leaves are available else you have none ready for next year!
Compost loads of things, get the mixture approximately and remember that air and some moisture are essential. Turning with a fork speeds things up greatly. Things like nettles are rich in nutrients and help with the breakdown process so gloves on and search footpaths. You can add urine to compost (not too much as it might stink) which is rich in nitrogon and accerates the breakdown. You can feed the micro organisms with sugar, there is an old trick to put some flat 'cola' and beer diluted a little and poured over the heap to again accelerate things. Also you need to have some microbial life in there to multiply, so gather some soil from under a hedge where its been undisturbed for seasons and sprinkle it into the bin, this 'seeds' the organic breakdown you are trying to multiply. Brown corrugated cardboard (largely unprinted) is another great free resource as is shredded paper (again avoid too much ink or 'colour' print because of the oil and plastic content). You can put some autumn leaves in your compost right now but don't get the balance too far out.
Theres not a lot of green growth right now, but kitchen waste (yours or a local restaurant) is good and around our location there is some ground elder sprouting up green growth if you want to gather such stuff.
Finally keep heavy rain off the pile because it leaches out all the nutrients into the soil, in a dalek or 'pallet' bin then covered by something to keep most of the rain water off, even a sheet of cardboard (replaced evert few weeks when it disintigrates) will greatly aid this and cause the water to run down the sides.

All good advice here. The only other thing I'd add is to have as many compost bins as you can. It helps enormously with turning your compost if you have a spare one you can empty a full one into to turn it, & one full of compost which is ready to rock when you need it.

And the top layer always looks like nothing is happening. I love sticking a fork in and discovering what I thought was a 3ft high pile of dead stuff is really 6 inches of dead stuff under 2 1/2ft of black nectar!

Good job I have a small one still using a potty