Some much needed compost advice, please

I am relatively new to vegetable gardening, but thoroughly enjoying it. However, I have not yet taken the leap of starting a compost heap. My question is simple: can I keep my soil in tip-top condition with only a twice yearly dig-in of well composted manure, or do I have to take the plunge and start composting kitchen/garden waste, too? Any advice much appreciated. Thank you.

 

Hi Rob! to GC.

I'm also a "relative" newbie (just a bit of a gossip head/poster )

My understanding is that you *can* keep your soil in tip-top condition by a twice yearly application of well-rotted manure (if you have a sustainable resource, of course! )

As for taking the plunge into kitchen/garden waste composting, well, I'm thinking: how can you avoid it? As a consumer of food/beverage stuff, where else would you put your (free!) tea bags/coffee grinds/vegetable remnants? As a gardener, where else would you put your (free!) lawn clippings, weeds, crop redundancies, shredded paper, cardboard offerings? If you are sending them out to landfill, it is an opportunity lost!

If you are an aspiring gardener, yes, you could muddle by (quite well) with well rotted manure; but why waste what nature provides by the very act of gardening?

Built yourself a compost heap! It's cheap, it's worth it (if you have the space - but it doesn't have to take a lot of space - it's all relative). And ... it could save you money; save wildlife (I've had bees colonise in one of mine) and it is a fab opportunity to recycle the most natural of "ingredients" = garden waste! Not to mention that well rotted manure will add to the attractiveness/nutrient value of your compost heap

Where else will your kitchen/garden waste go?

 

Don't waste "waste" - compost it!
If it's organic it will rot down and when added to your garden it will do nothing but good. It will improve soil structure and add a small amount of nutrients. Adding manure to either a compost heap or directly to the soil adds more nutrients than those available in basic garden compost. If you use a worm-composting heap/bin, the worms produce a slightly more nutrient rich compost than standard composting.

 

Do it, Rob, do it!

As the others say, we all have kitchen and garden "waste" to dispose of. Rather than filling landfill, make your own compost. It is not complicated, doesn't take much space (you can make your heap as small or large as your space, and supply of ingredients, allows), and is very satisfying.
It's not complicated either. The only thing that it helps to remember is to mix your really soft stuff, grass clippings etc, with slightly harder stuff, hedge prunings, cut flower stems etc. I think of it like a large lasagne. The various components are fine on their own, but mix them together in small layers, and not only does the whole thing handle better - it stays on your fork! - it actually tastes better too!

 

Composting is one of the best things I've ever done. All of our green waste goes in the compost bin. As a result I'm hardly taking my general waste bin out for collection, my bin's don't smell etc. God knows how much has actually been saved from going to landfill because of this.

It takes a few goes to get it going I've found. But once you've mastered it you could be making a bag of compost a month throughout the summer. Stockpile it for the winter months and you will be laughing.

 

All wonderful answers. Thank you so much. BUT, maybe I should have explained more. Although English by birth (with PG tips and roast beef gravy still flowing through my veins), I now call Sweden home. As you may know, Sweden is a model of all things "green". In the council where I live, we sort all our compostable material into large, brown, bio-degradable paper sacks, which are collected weekly to use in the production of biogas, which in turn fuels our all our local buses and council vehicles (you've gotta love Sweden). SO, my dilemma is: do I continue to contribute to the good of the air quality for the 100,000 residents of my council; or do I start contributing to the good of my soil that feeds a family of 6 (yes, we have four kids) that supplies around 10% of our vegetable consumption. If, the answer is yes, I can produce great veg using only manure, I will continue to help the masses. If the answer is no, I will forget the communal good and concentrate instead on my carrots. This moral dilemma is for you, and you alone, to answer. Think hard my friends . I await your decision.

 

BTW, Sian's idea that a compost heap is like a large lasagne, has in itself almost convinced me to forget the rest of society's clean air needs. An outdoor lasagne: what a tremendous thought!

 

Charity starts at home, you compost whatever you can to feed your family, if the council are that desparate for bio gas then they will have to set up bio gas digesters to process sewage

 

Welcome to GC Rob. You could take the middle road.....50% to the council and 50% for a compost heap.

 

JWK: The biogas goes to buses for those that need this vital transport network and small cars for free home visits (day and night) to the elderly and long term sick that need food, shopping, medical care etc, but don't want to move to a care home. The beauty of Sweden's welfare state. Like I said, a dilemma. Not that I want to open an ethical debate and stray too far from fruit and veg. I'm leaning towards the 50/50 argument. Sheal: you might be on to something.

 

Hi Rob, here's a few alternate views for you.

Green manure: Green manure are crops you grow between crops, ie when your soil is free of your normal edible crops, and they do several things.

1. They cover bare ground to help prevent weeds getting established.
2. They give a yield of green fibrous material or biomass to help either thin soils hold onto moisture and nutrients or help to break up and enrich heavier soils.
3. They draw up nutrients into the plants from the soil and hold it there until you cultivate it back into the soil, which helps with your next food crop. And while they draw up the nutrients into them it prevents rain from washing those nutrients out of bare soil.
4. They fix nitrogen from the air to themselves which is then released into the soil again when you cultivate it back in before your next food crop.

All in all green manure does many things for your soil, which then helps your next food crop. And ethically for you in Sweden, your still contributing to your local services as its an extra crop your growing specifically to grow your food.

Collecting fallen deciduous leaves and composting them is good for soil structure (leaf mould).

Are you close to the sea? How about collecting seaweed and composting that? Collect it and hose it off to remove unwanted salt then compost and add to your soil.

How about waste from the timber industry? Composted bark is another good addition to the soil.

Grow Comfrey (Bocking 14. a Russian sterile variety), great all round plant this is, can be rotted down to make plant food, used as a compost activator it will heat up heaps quicker than anything else...many more uses for Comfrey bocking 14...google for them, I have a massive patch!

Keep a few chickens and enjoy your own home produced eggs and put the chickens waste in your soil.

Buy a couple of bales of straw and add to your soil, it'll open up heavy soils and aid thin soils to hold onto moisture and nutrients.

The list is endless, think outside the box assess where there might be a waste product, google it and see if it can be used in your garden.

I even use spent hops from the beer industry on my Rhubarb, the Rhubarb loves it and its a great smell for me when I walk past it.

Steve...

 

Also think of how many plastic bags that shop bought compost comes in that would have to no longer be sent to landfills