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Old "Compost heap" / Leaves - What to do?
Hampshire Steve
Posts: 17
Hi There
For several years now we have cut grass and cleared leaves into large piles in an unused part of our garden. They have now accumulated into large piles up to a 1m high and covering an area around 20-30 Sq m.
I am now wondering what I can do with this considering it varies between 1-8 years old? Is either the leaf or grass compost any good to put on the garden....or has it become totally useless. As you may gather I am a novice gardener.
Especially, it would be useful to know how I could tell whether any stuff is usable or not?
I know there must be some expert composters out there? All help welcomed on how to manage this heap or even use any of it?
Cheers
Steve
0
Posts
The top may not be ready, but if the stuff at the bottom is brown, crumbly like peat, and has an earthy or no smell, it is great for mixing in the soil when planting anything. Scrape the partly decomposed stuff together. If it is dry, water it. It should rot down better like that.
I would imagine that the decomposed material will be fantastic stuff.
If the grass has just turned to slime, then do not despair, dig a trench across an area where you want to cultivate and bury the 'slime' and cover over with soil. It will soon be incorporated into the soil by good old worms and bacteria.
Our 'non-compost' heap is used about every 5 years and the stuff in there is really good despite being made up of all sorts of roots and such like which cannot go on the heap proper.
Length of time means little.
Welcome Steve - I'm also relatively new to gardening, but I've picked up some basics along the lines of:
Anything you can do to improve soil by adding the chemicals, making it easier for the roots to spread through it or helping it to hold the right amount of water will be appreciated by your plants. Compost can do all of these:
so dig in the bit that's well-rotted (brown & crumbly) into your soil, piling up the more recent stuff to start the process anew. The age probably doesn't matter too much - some of the chemicals may have been washed into the soil below by rain (in which case, perhaps dig some of that up as well!), but its "structural! ability shouldn't have changed much.
Just be careful if using it on very young plants as it may be too much for their delicate roots.
Hope this helps!
Wow. Amazed by the level of knowledge and expertise here. Thanks for the great advice and very heartening to discover that I can make use of what I have already.
I shall certainly have a go at building some composting bins - it has been on the "list" for some time now to tidy up the huge messy area where a compost heap should be.
Cheers