I lifted the old carpet (see left hand bottom of first photograph) and decided to have a look at my buried compost treasure last week.
The rough stuff went into the bottom of a new pallet compost pile. This is now full of nettles, cut flower heads, weeds and grass from the lawns.
It's been covered up with the nineteen seventies psychedelic carpet. I don't or try not to use nylon carpets because they are a nuisance breaking down and wrapping round my garden fork or shovel. I believe modern carpets contain fire retardants and nasty chemicals and we don't want that in our growing soil do we?
I bucketed my compost in an old tree plant pot and lay some one inch mesh over the top of my 'compost bath' and used an up turned weeding bucket to hold the other end of the mesh up. Then I emptied the compost buckets contents onto the mesh and forced it through the mesh with my trusty garden spade and filled a bucket in the compost bath with lovely friable, sieved compost. Any big lumps of compost went on next years potato are of the veg plot and any stones and twigs were thrown over the hedge into some rough grass.
You can't beat having your own compost pile can you?
I always wanted to start a compost and then grow vegetables, but it was not allowed. Hubby was against spoiling 'the look' not to mention the work it would have entailed for him. I can understand it now that I'm old and past it...grins.
ReplyDeleteHi Valerie you can buy some nice and tidy compost bins. I like to make my compost pile for free or next to nothing. Seaweed, weeds, hedge and lawn clippings, plant prunings, parts of vegetables, leaves...? All great ingredients for the compost heap. I never understand why people throw their compost into the dustbin. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteUsed tea leaves, broken egg shells, debris from the ash can . . . just what I can remember my old dad using on his veg plot. No need for dangerous products like round up either. He had us four kids to pick the caterpillars from the cabbages!
ReplyDeleteOh did I forget the potato peelings?
DeleteSounds like you had a good allotment apprenticeship Gwil. I have used wood ashes on my onion patch. The only thing I wouldn't use to compost is meat that attracts vermin. Plastic is no good either. Roundup and chemical weedkillers should be banned. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI use to know an allotment holder who grew his spudatoes from potato skins.
ReplyDeleteWe are learning all these wise things, too late in life, to make use of them.
ReplyDeleteBut it's good to have son's next door chickens, to 'dispose' of some of what would usually go in the garbage. Not the same as compost. But every little thing, which can be "re-used," is a good thing. :-)
Chicken manure is great for the garden wisp of words. I have bought tubs of organic chicken manure pellets for the veg plot. You don't get the weeds the same and plants love them. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNice pile Dave. Black gold as they say.
ReplyDeleteThanks Philip. Black gold is so true. The pile is no more. Think I need to get ready for Autumn leaves. Compost is like sheds on a smallholding. You never have enough.
ReplyDeleteI recently visited an organic wine grower and looked at the plants of his neighbour the one who uses weedkillers, chemicals etc., apparently all the latest carcinogenic technology that the Germans have recently bought from America. There was no comparison. I shall put up some photos to prove the point at a future date. The first grapes are ready for harvesting - 2 weeks early. We've had another weather record breaking a summer. My farmer is approaching 79, drinks a bottle of his own wine every day, eats nothing but organic, and is a picture of vibrant health.
ReplyDeleteYour Organic farmer sounds like he's found his elixir for life Gwil. Wish I could source a boottle or three. Look forward to seeing your photos.
ReplyDeleteI keep hinting about needing a compost heap to my husband, but he remains deaf to my hints. So I am using one end of one of the raised beds to park off my compostable bits for the moment. I did try a dustbin with a lid on, but got a bit of a surprise when I opened it to find it full of maggots. So reluctantly still buying in compost!
ReplyDeleteHi Vera. A fym pile makes a good compost heap. Especially if yoy cover it up with an old pit silage cover or carpet. I sometimes buy compost for my seed trays but use the compost heap for potting up the plants. Have you never thought of growing Perennials and selling them? I have over a thousand waiting to go. Thanks!
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