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Saturday 4 January 2020

First Footing through Compost

My first visit to Freshwinds Garden was very satisfying.
By the end of the morning, I felt very pleased with myself.

Back in October, the compost heaps were so full that we had to start stacking prunings on the path. It was a terrible mess.

When the work on the fencing began, the compost area was completely neglected.













Well I have learnt a good lesson and its this ..... the plant material has rotted down quite a bit and looks reduced. It is therefore, not such a daunting task to begin to tackle it.

Today I was so  tempted to start digging over one of the vegetable beds but I grabbed the bull by the horns and began at the far end of the compost area.
And then, although it was hard work, it wasn`t as bad as I`d imagined.
This is the newest heap. I forked all the unrotted stuff on here.
Then I got down to the good stuff ..... not much in this one.
I took it all to the polytunnel. It`s not perfect but I`m happy with the consistency.
 When I got to the bottom I started on the next one.
There was far more in here. After forking the top off, I barrowed it to the raised bed. I didn`t finish.
 
As I went, I weeded the path, as well as loading old dahlia stems into layers with the other stuff.
 
I reckon the heaps could do with trampling down a bit to compact the layers and seeing as some of it was very dry, it could do with some water.
One of the keys is to alternate layers and mix it around a bit.
There`s nothing like your own compost.

 
Elsewhere around the garden, the ground is drying out, calendula are flowering .....

......winter honeysuckle is smelling sweet ......

 ...... and beds wait
patiently to be dug over.
I can`t wait.
 


 A cracking start to the season.

 

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