The pleasures of compost
I recently gave talks on ‘Sustainable Gardening for our Changing Climate’ at the Floral Fringe Fair at Loxwood Meadows and the majority of questions following my talks were about composting which is pretty much my favourite subject! People can struggle to get their compost working efficiently. Good, aerobic compost relies on a mix of green (soft green herbaceous material, annual weeds, grass clippings, fruit and vegetable matter) and brown material (chopped up woody prunings, leaves, rose prunings, ornamental grasses or other herbaceous that has ‘browned off’). The green stuff is the nitrogen and the brown stuff is the carbon. It is essential to have a good mix of both otherwise you will either end up with a dry, grey heap that refuses to decompose (too much brown carbon) or a wet, slimy heap (too much green nitrogen) that has become ANAEROBIC. The heap must be aerobic to rot down properly, it needs air. The brown carbon material separates out the green nitrogen material allowing air to flow through the heap. If it is anaerobic, it will not rot down. With correct decomposition, the heap really heats up and composts efficiently. Grass clippings, coffee grounds and urine are all great activators (…..so no need to go back into the house during a gardening session!!). An efficient and well managed compost heap should take about 12-18 months to be ready for use as a mulch on your borders, vegetable patch etc.
If you don’t have compost bins but would like to, the cheapest option is to make them out of pallets. A great use for an otherwise waste product. Tie four pallets together with wire at each corner, to make a square. Site the pallet bin on soil not paving so the microorganisms can enter your heap from beneath. Compost heaps make fantastic homes for the smallest in the food chain; nematodes, bacteria, insects and worms which then provide food for the next in the food chain; toads, small mammals, slow worms, birds. So compost heaps are a brilliant resource in the garden for you, providing free mulch, they are a brilliant habitat for wildlife and they recycle your waste food and garden material. What’s not to like?
If you are now mowing your lawns again after No Mow May to August, do put the cuttings onto your compost heap as a brilliant activator. You will need to loosen the cuttings by stirring with a garden fork otherwise they will either clump together and become grey, dry and anaerobic in the middle or if they are too wet they will cling together in a slimy mess. Loosening the cuttings allows air into the pile which will make it aerobic again and will rot down beautifully. Alternatively, you can use grass cuttings as a mulch straight onto your borders. If it is during a very dry period, water them when on your borders to prevent them from blowing away and then just leave them to rot down and feed your soil.
Compost heaps do need managing, and once out of control, will not produce compost but instead be an unsightly pile of rubbish that cannot be used. If you have bins that have got to this state, remove the material, cutting it up smaller, mixing the ingredients more and adding in activators. If you don’t have the time or inclination to do this, get in touch. Compost renovation is what I do.
Contact Bev on 07867 544845 and www.gardensrevitalised.co.uk
Photo by Sandie Clark on Unsplash