The other month we were asked by the good folks at the Thompson and Morgan blog to impart one favourite piece of gardening advice. Just one?

Over the years we’ve picked up loads of horticultural information through gardening books, learning by our own mistakes and chatting to fellow enthusiasts (a great tip in itself) and it got us thinking, what are our all-time favourite gardening tips? Over the next few weeks we’ll feature a few of our favourites, starting with:

The compost bin is probably the most valuable addition to any garden. The secret is getting the balance of materials in the heap correct plus regular turning with a garden fork and adding more moisture if necessary. You ideally want a 50/50 mix of materials containing nitrogen (“greens”) and carbon (“browns”). The greens are: grass clippings (applied sparingly as they can turn to a smelly mush), plants (no flowering weeds or diseased leaves) and kitchen waste (vegetable peelings, ripped-open teabags and over-ripe fruit). The “browns”: cardboard, ripped or scrunched-up newspaper and egg boxes. Don’t bother with thick stems or anything woody as they tend to take ages to break down and no meat or dairy should be put in either.

Don’t make the mistake we did by adding salad leaves from a dinner plate that had been contaminated with some meat juice. It didn’t dawn on us that we did wrong until one Saturday while despositing some vegetable peelings we were faced with the back end of an enormous rat – the size of a large guinea pig – escaping down the compost heap. The large rodent took off into the neighbour’s garden with our cat gingerly following it down their path. A minute or two later hysterical screams were heard from next door but one’s back yard where a family barbecue was in progress. We kept our head down for the rest of the day and vowed never to put any meat in that bin again!  #Compostingiseasy!