I know this has been covered before, but I just wanted to brag! ;D Emptied a third of the allotment compost bin today - the other 2 thirds have pumpkins growing in them. It is amazing. In just under a year, all the old green rubbish and kitchen waste has vanished and someone has replaced it with the sweetest smelling, dark and crumbly compost I have ever seen! 10 barrow loads later and I ache like I have run the London Marathon, but I have been able to spread a generous layer over all currently unused areas of the plot. It looks great, full of health and just crying out to be planted in!
Planted Brocolli Corvet, Spring cabbage, Kale and caulis. Planted French Beans 'pongo' and picked spring onions, beetroots, carrots, raspberries, blackberries, runners, french beans, courgette and sweet corn.
Sore hands, aching back, but satisfied grin!
Lovely, homemade compost is. I turned mine yesterday and it's looking lovely, full of wriggly worms, it looks more like a wormery than a compost heap. It's nearly ready for going on the garden, only problem is there's no space at the moment. Waiting for the peas and sweetcorn to finish and then I can dig the bed and enlarge it, that's where I plan to grow my raspberries and blueberries. Definitely need to get another compost bin to make more.
Emma Jane, how about keeping that grin going by catching the night train up here so you can repeat the compost spreading bit tomorrow?! Would be much appreciated by this "old" lady! Keep up the good work ;)
Would love to Wicker, but my god my back is killing me today, and I have big ugly bruises on my legs where I was leaning into the compost bins. Why is it necessary for pallets to be sooooooooo rough?? ;D
I seem to have left the odd potato tuber in one compost heap, and the resulting plant looks healthier than the other spuds I have (including the so called Sarpo blight resistant ones).
I just love my compost heap. I'm starting to feel like the point of the garden is to produce compost - it's been my biggest success this year! :-\ ;D
It's amazing how much it can change a girl too. I never used to bother cutting back my periennials after they'd flower. But now, to boost the compost heap I do cut back. The only trouble is it's made me a bit lazy on the weeding front. Rather than yanking them out when they are small, I let them grow a bit bigger so there's more green stuff for the heap! But at least it means I don't care so much if a plant goes to the great garden nursery in the sky: it's more compost as well as room to put on of my new purchases in!
I had a dig through my older compost heap at the weekend, but it's not ready yet. I was a bit disappointed as the other bin is nearly full, so I was hoping to clear out the old one. but never mind.
If you haven't planted the entire area you spread compost on, EJ, sow a green manure to capture any nutrients, especially nitrogen, rather than have them leached out in to the ground water.
John, if EJ`s plot is anything like my vegetable plot she won`t need to sow green manure. Within 3 weeks of clearing a bed I can guarantee that it will be covered with a dense mat of chickweed, annual grasses, buttercups,small-leaved willow herb, forget-me-nots, and anything else that likes my soil.
As my back no longer believes in digging I simply rake it all off in the spring and dump it into the compost bins - it all goes back into the soil eventually.