Composting
j_woolliscroft
Posts: 6
I'm looking for one or more species of plant to grow specifically to fill compost bins as quickly as possible and to offset the excessive brown materials I currently have.
Ideally such a plant would grow quickly in a limited space, produce large volumes of green materials but limited brown materials and be able to quickly grow back if cut back with the longest growing season possible.
Also it would be particularly useful if necessary to be able to harvest seeds to be used to grow additional plants or replace existing plants if those plants die off at the end of the year.
I am aware of Comfrey, however I am concerned that Comfrey grows extremely deeply in the ground, can spread quite quickly and being hard to kill may be hard to control or remove.
As a consequence I am looking for alternatives. It would be useful if such species are also nitrogen fixers.
My garden is quite small so I need to make best use of the limited space I have.
Posts
Grass
Green manures? Such as phacelia, mustard and buckwheat? Nettles too but without the seeds. Also yarrow from the hedgerows.
Thank you all, I will look into these suggestions
Hi j_w. If you get hold of the Comfrey 'Bocking 14' It doesn't spread and has all the benefits of its unruly relative.
Ladybird,
I have found Bocking 14 doesn't seem to produce large volumes of material. At the moment I have one which appears to grow perhaps twice a year and once grown, flowered and cut back tends to stay dormant for a substantial period of time.
I'm not sure if there are ways to encourage more growth in terms of volume and speed up regrowth following being cut back.
Is it possible to encourage more growth out of Bocking 14?