I’ve got a brand new compost tumbler… and the Wurzels stuck in my head:
It’s two years now since Ryan and I took stock of the garden and decided that we wanted to make some fairly major changes. My compost ‘daleks’ were one of the early casualties, as they disappeared so that we could fence in the extra strip of garden that had – inexplicably – been left outside of the fence.
And my lavender shed had to go, as it was blocking access to the extended garden. That space became home to Ryan’s new workshop. It has a patio area in front that is shaded in the evenings, and will – eventually – become our outdoor sitting area.
Ryan emptied his old (seagrass) shed, and we were poised for it to go off to a new home when Lockdown happened and everything ground to a halt. When it became apparent that it wasn’t going anywhere for a while, I borrowed it as a makeshift greenhouse for a few weeks. When it was damaged in a storm, Ryan reglazed it for me.
But it was exactly the same model as my lavender shed – a “potting shed” with windows that didn’t open. Which means it’s a lousy greenhouse as it’s more of an oven when the sun comes out. I blocked out some light with a net curtain and propped the door open, but it was still a raging inferno on hot days.
Now that Lockdown has eased, we were able to dismantle seagrass shed and send it off to its new home. This meant that we had got to the point in the plan where I get some of the new things I want.
I had planned to get a greenhouse/shed combo – a greenhouse with a shed on the end. But they’re now out of stock everywhere until early next year. So I have a greenhouse on order that should arrive in a few weeks. Ryan has plans to turn it into a hydroponic greenhouse. I have plans to paint it
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
In-ground compost bins are great for your garden since they help with pest and odor control, look aesthetically pleasing, and save a lot of space. Check out these In Ground Compost Bin Ideas to create natural fertilizer that will benefit your plants.
An ideal seed compost is able to retain water, whilst at the same time letting excess water drain away to provide an environment that is damp but not waterlogged. It allows penetration of plant roots and is able to anchor plants, but has space for air. Its texture is consistent, and it is free from pests, diseases and weeds that would compete with the seedlings. As we have seen, it doesn’t need to contain many nutrients if seedlings are going to be pricked out; seedlings growing in modules will either need enough nutrients in the compost to support them through their first weeks of life, or suitable supplementary feeding.
One of the big differences between now and the time before gardeners relied so much on peat-based composts is the rise in container growing. An army of modern amateur gardeners has to put up with small gardens, and possibly with no soil at all. Growing plants in containers allows us to garden wherever we like, and even to grow plants that would not thrive in our soil. Some plants are grown in containers to keep them under control; others so that they can be moved indoors in winter to ensure their survival.
Whenever I see demonstrations of composting on TV I’m always impressed by three things – the size of the compost heap, the endless supply of compostable materials to put on it and the enormous vigour of the gardener in charge of the heap.
When the sun shone on Saturday morning, and the rain promised to delay until midday, we hatched a plan to build two more of the raised beds in the garden. One half of the garden – 6 beds – was completed last year, leaving 6 more to go. We don’t have space for them all until we take the old shed down, but we found room for two next to Ryan’s workshop.
Gardeners are privileged to witness miracles on a daily basis – seeds germinating, buds unfurling and bees pollinating flowers. No less miraculous are the quiet miracles that take place in the compost heap, where tiny organisms turn waste products into compost, allowing the cycle of life to begin again.
If you’ve got a small garden then you might find it difficult to find space for a conventional compost heap. A possible solution is a worm compost bin, which takes up far less space because an army of worms does most of the composting work.
A container garden can be a delight, but it can also be expensive – the pots themselves aren’t cheap. If you have a water meter then you have to factor in the cost of keeping your pots watered, and you need fertilizer as well. It is usually recommended that potting compost be replaced every year, and if you’re buying good quality peat-free compost then the cost starts to add up.
I’m a firm believer in composting. In the years in which I haven’t really had a garden, I have mourned the loss of valuable resources as I sent my compostables off in the municipal collections.
I hopped up to London a while back to be a guest (along with Jeff Lowenfels, author of ‘Teaming with microbes’) on ‘Sow, Grow, Repeat’, the Guardian’s gardening podcast. Wearing my Master Composter hat, I was chatting with Alys Fowler and Jane Perrone on the ins and outs of composting. Find out more about Bokashi, the weird things compost nuts add to their heap and the microbes living in there!