Andy Zoop runs our garden. It’s not that large – a patch of lawn surrounded by beds – but it’s nice to sit in and provides us with many herbs. It’s also something of a wildlife garden to encourage insects and the like. In fact Andy’s gardening technique mainly involves looking at the plants. In contrast my gardening technique involves violently ripping things out of the earth. And so since we’re now in early autumn my special skills come into play, which is handy as I really like this sort of thing and it’s been a while since anyone’s paid me to do it.
Once I’d cut back a good third of the greenery I noticed the massive pile of brambles and branches and realised I fundamental flaw in my plan. The garden, being small, doesn’t have a dumping ground. I asked Andy about this and he had a solution – a patch of earth that, due to its position out of the sun, resolutely refused to grow anything. I caught up with his thinking – compost heap.
One of the few regrets I had on moving from Kingstanding was leaving my compost bin behind. I’d gotten into the habit of saving all the organic kitchen material and it seemed really weird to just be dumping it in the normal bin. So this was certainly a good thing. Part of my soul has returned. I shall turn rotten plants into fertile soil.
Rather than buying a big plastic bin I’m going for the DIY approach. It will take a while as I’m also going for the no-money approach, raiding the many skips that decorate suburbia. Here’s where we’re currently at:
I started by staking a circle in the ground with random pieces of wood and bamboo canes. I then lined the inside of this with cardboard and filled it with the cuttings. Next I surrounded the cardboard with a piece of carpet underlay from a skip and tied it tight with string. The lid was made from a kitchen cabinet door with more carped nailed to the underside. This carpet will keep everything warm over the winter. Ventilation will come from the base (where I deliberately put all the thicker brambles) and the rear which is protected from the elements by the fence and not so thickly lined. The next stage is to line the outside with plastic, again for warmth but also to keep the rain off (damp is good, but not too damp). Large sheets of plastic are somewhat hard to come by but like I said, lots of skips in this area.
See also, Wikipedia on Composting.
What happens when the cardboard rots? Will the contents have mushed down into one lump by then so that it holds together by itself anyway?
I’ve got one of those £5-from-the-council composters on the way – ugly as sin, but better than the old cold water tank with some holes in that I’m currently using.
I’m assuming that when it comes to harvest the compost I’ll just peel off the rotting cardboard. Plus it being on the edge should mean it doesn’t rot too much. The main thing is to hold it together and keep it warm.
Ah, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but it’s fun!
We recently built a large compost bin using old wooden pallets (not chemically treated). I has been working well, however I do have one word of warning.
Don’t dump sugar into your compost! Well not unless you wish to compete with bees and wasps for access to your compost bin. I made this mistake when ants had found their way into the house and into a bag of sugar. Not wanting to toss it in the trashcan I dumped it into the compost outside and had to avoid the bin for weeks due to white-tailed wasps who took over my bin.
How’s it progressing? Have you started urinating in the garden again?
My £5-from-the-council bin arrived. I chose the small one and thank god I did – it’s huge. Transferred the contents of the old one and it barely covered the bottom of this behemoth. The only downside was discovering that my helpful father-in-law had dumped some fir tree cuttings in there at some stage over the summer, and with all the resin, they’ll take years to rot down. Picking them out from the rest of the nicely rotted stuff wasn’t really an option working with no gloves at -2 degrees. The lesson is, don’t let anyone mess with your compost.
Still waiting for mine, but you can’t complain at £5 inc delivery.
Know what you mean about helpful people. You can’t complain but I’ve found pasta in the compost bucket which just isn’t going to work and often have to remove fruit juice and milk cartons from the recycling bin. Still, it’s the thought that counts