Shropshire Master Composter Sammy Powell is on a mission to rescue redundant kerbside recycling boxes. She’s transforming them into wormeries to gift to community groups and schools to show how easy it is to recycle kitchen scraps and turn them into nutrient-rich vermicompost.

Worms create compost as they digest kitchen scraps, breaking them down and secreting a nutrient rich mix, which becomes homemade compost. If you’d like to try and make one there’s a lovely tutorial here:

Make your own wormery

Frankie Kennett, project coordinator for Cumbria Master Composters, has also been helping Penrith Community Gardeners build a leaf bin. She came up with the idea of utilising an old fire guard to collect leaves. The leafmould will be used by gardeners at Coronation Gardens to improve soil structure next year.

“These ideas are all about showing people how easy it is to make leafmould or compost at home – even if you don’t have traditional bins or lots of space!” said David Garrett, head of Knowledge Transfer at Garden Organic.