Another pointless thread

I don't have comfrey but I do have stinging nettles and they are getting the same treatment in a bucket that's well away from the house so the smell won't matter. When it's ready, it's going on the rhubarb. I used to feed dried blood to the rhubarb, but that's not such a good idea now I've got a dog with a keen nose and a tendency to dig if it smells something interesting. Bonemeal and blood, fish 'n bone fertilisers have also been relegated to places that the dog can't reach.

Steve

I've recently started seeing the benefits of reusing and recycling garden waste and need to have a go at making some nettle fertiliser.

I've also started collecting rain water and have made a corner of the garden into my grass clippings and hedge chip pile.

If you guys have any other hints and tips they'll be really welcome. The garden waste collection fee this year looks to be ridiculous so I've got a very large wheelie bin that can be upcycled into something useful. Ideas on a postcard!

My green garden waste goes onto the right hand heap of a pair of compost heaps. Each is 1m x 1m x 1m, a wooden post at each corner, tough plastic wind break mesh (lasted over 30 years so far!) for 3 sides, front made of removable frames holding wire mesh. When the right hand heap is over full and can't take any more, the left hand heap is ready to be emptied so is either dug into the garden immediately or bagged up for later use. The right hand heap is then decanted into the now empty left hand heap. The turning over and mixing does wonders for the quality of the end product, no slimy layers, no dry patches, no nasty smells, just nice, brown, crumbly compost. And a couple of frequent bonuses when decanting the heap are seeing the slow worms which hang around in the heap and a visit from a robin which knows a good source of bugs and worms when it sees it.

Happy composting .

Steve

How do you avoid the slow worms with the garden fork? They are ...... sort of, slow.

They're not so slow when nicely warmed up in a good compost heap . I've sometimes tried to photograph one but it's slithered through a tiny hole before I can get the blighter in focus .

Steve

All our green waste goes into 2 Dalek composters, at year end the bottom is
opened and enough for a winter top dressing pulled out.

Same again in spring. Mrs HG is the gardener at HG Folly,
all I do is fill the composters and supervise with a pint of homebrew.

HG

Do you use the carrot and stick approach - you dangle the homebrew in front of Mrs HG as an incentive to keep at it, carefully keeping it out of her reach until the job is done??

Steve

IT HAS RAINED!!! Only for about 30 seconds. The lawn is still brown, soil is still dust, the water butts are still empty. But it was REAL, WET RAIN!!!

Steve

We are due rain this morning but I am not holding out much hope.

Hold out a bucket instead...

Drought!!

We invested in 5 110liter water butts last autumn, they're full and when, if, we get a hosepipe ban they will come into play.

In the mean time they're a breading ground for mossies, which the local swifts and swallows love.

As for personal hydration...


Cheers
HG

Only 5? And full?? Of rainwater??? I've got 8 butts, soon to be 9, and no rainwater in any now except for a small amount reserved for the pitcher plant. Meanwhile, the water level in the wildlife pond in the garden is dropping by a few mm each hot day and I'm having to top it up with tap water that's been standing in a water butt for a week. That's the first time I've ever had to do it in the almost 40 years I've been in this house.

But there's currently no hosepipe ban and water supplies seem to be holding up in spite of only 4% usual rainfall in July and demand being a lot higher than usual (according to the local water company) .

Steve

Our garden waste collection has been a paid service for the past 5 or 6 years. I've paid in a bunch of times (even for two bins!) and barely ever used the collections.

The price for the service has been increasing steadily but this year's fee is extortionate. I've turned one of the large bins into a waterbutt and the other is intended to become a composter.

The waterbuttbin was filled extremely quickly before these dry months arrived. The water is still near tbe top of the buttbin because I'm the definition of 'half a job Harry'. I hadn't installed a tap yet when one of the big deluges came by and filled the buttbin to capacity!

The composterbin has a bit of gunk in it that I haven't got around to removing. Once I've cleaned it I'll look to putting 100s of holes in it. I might even put a mesh at the bottom to make space for water to pass through (which I can remove by finally adding a tap in 38 years time)

If anyone's got a design idea for how I might make it work, I'm all ears.

Get three pallets. make a three sided container by screwing them together. Use a fourth one as spare parts (crowbar them apart, not bash them!!). One slat fixed firmly across the bottom and one across the top. One nail each side to hold additional slats as the thing fills up. Make a second one alongside, as described above and you won't need the council bin except for heavy branches, brick ends, old sacks and all the stuff they say you shouldn't put in them! ........ soft stuff in the heap, hard stuff in the bin.

That's the Rolls Royce approach and it will work perfectly. My two are just a pole at each corner, tough plastic windbreak material around 3 sides, whatever junk I've got to make the equivalent of a slatted front. They aren't pretty but they are out of sight, they've lasted for over 30 years (with occasional repairs) and, most importantly, they work. A key point, and a reason why pallets are so good, is the need for size. A 1m cube is ideal. If a heap is too small, too much heat is lost for it to get to a decent temperature (seems strange saying that in the middle of a heatwave...).

A few of things to think about if using a plastic bin for composting. First, a compost heap needs air (hence the slats or windbreak plastic above). Without air, it can get horribly slimy and smelly. Second, a good heap needs access to the soil. It's bugs and beasties that do the composting, without them it's just smelly chemical decomposition. Third, a compost heap needs to be turned over at least once in its life or it can get stratified and parts can be hardly composted at all. With a two heap approach, you always fill the same container then mix it up by decanting it into the other container when full (or in my case, so full it's a hazard to passers by). With a single plastic container, you'll need some way of shaking it up, turning it upside down etc. . A plastic bin mounted on a pivot that allows it to be turned over vertically is OK - as long as you remember to turn it over once in a while .

Personally, I'd use both of your current bins for water as it looks like rainwater might be a scarce and valuable commodity in future. One of my water butts is actually an old plastic dustbin, another one (which the previous occupant had installed) looks like a big, plastic beer barrel.

One final point. Used bedding material (hay, wood shavings etc.) from rabbits, guinea pigs or other rodent-like pets is great for a compost heap. It's the nitrogen in what they excrete... .

Steve