My Compost Heap just Caught Fire

Hello. Oh, enjoying the garden. I love trees. All I wanted to do was plant trees and hedges. Yes. I've read the books, made the plan, raided the woods and dug the holes but mostly never have time to put anything in them. How I got myself diverted into triple-digging, composting, manuring, mulching, making a closhe for and now edging with planks my wife's vegetable patch I'll never know. At least planking might stop me mowing all her herbs.
That was not a good day.

Exactly, no smell, unless you get close to the lovely black stuff. Mind you, I'm becoming quite partial to the smell of cow manure so I'm no judge.

He planted 8 specimin trees widely spaced down two sides of his garden and four roses and reckons that's his garden finished. And why not? Two oaks he planted had their leaf edges go brown so he pronounced them dead and stopped watering them. I suggested potash but he didn't believe me. They're now ex-oaks. He's a glass half-empty kind'a man. “A man who flatters his neighbour spreads a net for his feet” (Prov. 29:5) so I don't. He feeds the wife's cat while we're on holiday so can't say fairer than that.
Wife's cat but I look after the monster. That's another thing I can't fathom.

Slightly squashy is how I like it. Mine's not wet as such, more like sticky liquorice, but expose it to the sun; it goes all crumbly. What happens to 'the middle and centre of the Compost Heap'? I think you lost a word there.

 

You buy leaf mould? My goodness, sound's like quite a garden. The village leaf dump is by the wood across from our house so seems a waste to not use it.

 

Thanks for the photos. It must be great stuff to use if it's dry and powdery like that. I guess the leaves must make a big difference. I keep leaves separate and when dry they turn into small flakes. Well my heap contains the same as yours except with dried woody plant stems instead of leaves, and I only started it last spring. I wonder why my black stuff is like tar then? If I forget my gloves I can't wash it off my hands easily. The heap's dry enough in the middle. Perhaps it is getting wet from the ground. The perspex top increased the heat a lot: if I take the top off and hold my hand a couple of inches above the cuttings I can feel the warmth.

I wonder what's living in yours. Too big for mice.

Rats?

 

A long term project that but perhaps you're right. The neighbour's garden is higher than mine so not much I can do quickly apart from try to place woody stuff at the bottom. The results are a bit gooey but I don't mind. At least it doesn't blow everywhere.
Recently I've been putting a lot of ash on it and I'm looking forward to seeing if that will alter things.

Did you see this from a house in Farnborough in May?


Compost caught alight.

Result.

At least that's their mulch all sorted.

 

My cat would love your garden.
Lucky man to have so many deciduous trees, and a garden with enough wind-free moments to spread ash! Starting on an ex-field is all very well - plenty of scope and all that, but to have my house surrounded by cosy, leafy trees in one's lifetime without resorting to conifers is, as yet, a dream....