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A Novice Starting A Compost Heap.
Martin99
Posts: 11
in Fruit & veg
Hi,
I'm a novice gardener who's just taken over an allotment. It's in pretty good shape but has many crops that have gone to seed and grass about a foot high. I want to get ahead of this before the spring /summer really kicks in and it becomes a jungle.
As a result I'm planning to start a compost heap and would like to know if it's acceptable to locate this on grass (or a layer of wood chip mulch over the grass)?
Thanks.
0
Posts
either on grass, or a layer of woodchip is fine.
Hi,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I'll crack on in the morning then.
Regards
Martin.
You will also need to plan for a second compost heap so make sure you leave room for two. Once you have filled the first heap you will still have a constant supply of greenery to compost and you will be waiting for the first heap to rot down before you can use the contents. I have three heaps and that allows each to rot down beautifully before I am tempted to throw the contents over the garden, but two will do very nicely.
Good luck with the allotment.
Hi Ceres,
Thanks for your response. My plan is to follow your lead ..... I talked to a friendly haulier yesterday and ended up with several wooden pallets in anticipation of todays replies. The pallets are fairly small, about a meter square, but I have enough to complete the 3 bin system you mention.
As sad as it sounds, I'm actually quite excited about putting it together and starting the whole thing off!
Thanks again.
Martin
Martin, Nothing excites proper gardeners more than compost.
My name is Topbird and I am a compost-aholic
Nothing nicer than an hour turning one compost bin into another - building the layers - tweeking the 'recipe' - watching the magic happen.
Somewhere to dispose of piles of garden and kitchen waste and, 6 months later, lots of beautiful black gold to spread around the garden complete with worms to work it into the soil.
All for free.
What's not to like??
Music to my ears Topbird.
Hubby has just emptied 22 , yes twenty two , dumpy sacks of the stuff around the garden. He might love it as much as we do.
I have two wooden bins I bought years ago when I had an unexpected bonus. They are a metre square, one gets filled while the other matures. About a year for both, then the mature stuff gets put into dustbins to be spread over the garden. There is a high proportion of of grass cuttings, vegetable food waste and shredded paper which goes onto ours.
It tends to come out rather lumpy but it always has a very good clean earthy smell. I tend to chop it up a bit before chucking it onto the garden.
I don't sow seeds or small plants into it. I was buying B&Q mulitpurpose peat free compost which is cheap but quite lumpy and not for seed sowing, but the larger clumpy bits actually do a brilliant job as a soil improver as they open the soil more. I will buy more of it for that purpose.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I'll second the shredded paper thing. It rots down beautifully when mixed up with all the kitchen and garden waste.
I'll echo the cheers for the 3-bin-pallet system
My OH built a row for me from pallets re-homed from our local animal feed store.
Straw makes a good dry ingredient instead of shredded paper, mine comes from my chicken house and is therefore mixed with their poop which adds a lot of goodness.
I know I'm a bit of a compost nerd but I too love the stuff and go to great lengths to find useful ingredients, even wandering around my sheep's field filling a bucket with their droppings to add. All the ash from my woodburner goes on there as do hair combings, dead bees and old birds nests. and as an activator my OH provides re-cycled beer which is diluted and added as I turn the heap