Compost

As Armandii said, we use a lot of compost and for potting things up we use bought potting compost (anything up to 6,000 litres a year). It's fine for starting things off - from seed, cuttings or splitting of plants. If anything is going to remain in a pot for a long time you would, eventually, need to add a feed. Most of what we grow is going to end up in the ground in our, or other people's garden. So bought potting compost is the easiest solution.

For our veggie and plant beds we dig in, or spread, home made compost. In the quantity we want/need it I've never bothered to make an enclosure for it but it does help the material to rot down quicker.

We have five compost heaps this size - it goes down 2ft below ground level.


That is a mixture of grass cuttings, dead leaves, light cut down plant material, some horse manure, all my shredded paper and some ash from our bonfire (we have a lot of woody plant and noxious weeds that get burnt).

In a year it rots down well - except for the top foot or so (an enclosed bin would rot most of the top as well). When we have emptied the previous year's compost from the heap next to it we put the top couple of feet into the empty heap to start it off.

We're gradually emptying it.


(A 70ft poplar tree came down in the storm and took out the fence!)





Using the compost as a soil improver seems to be all the garden needs as we have improved it from solid clay to a fair depth of good soil. Clay has a lot of nutrients so that is a natural help for the plants as well.

 

We don't get any.

 

Not really, but if you added meat or processed food, (which is a No, No), you might. You might however find it attracts Hedgehogs, all kinds of insects that eat, and help decompose, vegetable waste. It's amazing just how much plant waste a garden can produce over the seasons in the year so a Compost Heap of any design is such great thing especially as you can improve your soil with it.

 

Absolutely, but if you can tear it into reasonable pieces that would help it rot down.

 

It's best not to add glossy or waxy paper to it as they can contain heavy metals. This is mainly glossy magazines and catalogues and some of the junk mail that comes through the door. All other papers are usually good and can even be better for the compost than some of the plant material.

It's also nice to shred bills and stick them in the compost as they're not the friendliest things to keep around. It can also be cathartic.

 

I'm old fashioned and have all my bills in paper form. They're kept until no longer relevant and then shredded.

 

While I agree with Shiney about certain catalogues, the trend these days is to use vegetable dye for printing magazines, letters, and marketing blurb because of the ecological/conservation drive and those are safe to put on the Compost Heap. I subscribe to the weekly Amateur Gardening Magazine which is printed using vegetable dye and they stopped sending the Magazine in plastic bags but now send them in paper envelopes.