Compost

Now I know that this subject rouses many of you. However I would urge those experts among you to read no further as this is the story of how not to create that magical substance.

As the gardening season is now getting well into its stride I asked John to help me remove the top layers of our three compost heaps so that I could harvest the wonderful material at the bottom. We began by dismantling the very large heap at the end of the front garden. I had visions of it yielding enormous quantities of compost as it was huge and had been in place for more than two years. I was convinced that we would find hibernating snakes in its interior but as we delved deeper it was evident that nothing could live in the desiccated environment, not even a bacterium let alone a snake. My experience of compost heaps in the UK was that if you abandoned a heap of garden rubbish for about two years it would turn into compost. I am quite aware that the perceived wisdom is to chop the vegetation into small pieces then layer it like a lasagne and turn it regularly. I have never had the patience nor energy to follow this regime, as I had always had success with the leave it to its own devices system. However this obviously doesn't work here. I blamed the lack of decomposition on the last two years of drought. Eventually we ended up with a huge pile of very dry material and about ten barrow loads of reasonable compost which I put round some of the roses. I could see that John blamed the whole fiasco on me, but he didn't say too much.

We then moved to the far end of the allee to attack the two bins there. I am sorry to have to say that it was a similar story. However this time I had a real ear bashing. How did I expect woody material two foot long to break down etc.etc.

 

 I was then subjected to a master class in compost heap building and advised that in future I should make a heap adjacent to the bins and he would do the rest.

 

Fine, I could certainly not be bothered to chop the material having gathered it, then struggle for a couple of hundred yards to get it to the disposal point. A hectare of land produces an awful lot of green material and I know my limitations.

However you will notice that there is another ten barrow loads of the good stuff to move tomorrow.