Panic Buying - Compost!

While the rest of the world seemed to be panic buying toilet rolls I decided to go and get my compost for the season. 

I've been trying to go peat free for some time now so it seemed idea to get some from fertile fibres and try it out.

Luckily it's not far from where I live and the staff were super friendly. I'm really looking forward to seeing how well it does for me in this season.

The boy loved it as there was this rather striking parrot at the farm where they were based as well as a peacock and cows! A little boys heaven!

I'm hoping this will be fairly consistent and predictable! I'll let you know in a couple of months time when hopefully everything is growing well.

What compost are you using this year? Do you buy much in?

A Year Of Using A Composting Loo

So it's been a year now since I started using my composting loo.

I don't use it every time but it does get used frequently.

Importing Fertility into The garden

A video where I talk about importing fertility into the garden and what I'm trying to do to produce more from my own land. 

What do you do to improve the fertility of your soil in your garden?

Bigger Compost Area!

So last week I showed you how I'd tidied up my compost and started a new bin full, but within a few days I had already half filled it, I also have the shed I used for the sheep to muck out and some wood chip from a few years ago that is breaking up nicely. 

I decide to add a few more bins to my collection for all this lovely compost material I'm going to have. 

Bit of a mess

The area around my bins (cleverly hidden in my last lot of photos...) is home to some slabs for the patio and an assortment of building materials. I had a bit of a tidy up and cleared a patch.

The girls giving me some advice. 

I rolled out weed membrane between the sets of bins as I wanted to keep this area really low maintenance. 

I then gathered up some pallets from around my little farm. As I've been doing so much building work I could find just enough to make what I wanted.

Three new bins on the left.

A few screws later I'd made three more large compost bins. Using the tractor I started two of them off with some manure and a layer of two year old wood chip that is almost broken down, I then added a layer of comfrey to act as an activator. 

Comfrey added as an activator 

I'm quite pleased with this new area considering all it cost was a handful of screws! I'll keep all my tubs of plant food I'm making (comfrey and nettle tea) in this area as well, it should work well as a composting area for me. 

I might now leave a gap wide enough for the tractor bucket and then build another bank of 3 or four compost bins and try to beg a load of manure from one of my fathers friends to compost further, ready to use for next year. 

What do you think to my rustic compost area? Do you have a set up similar to this?

Sorting Out My Compost Bins

A couple of years ago I knocked up some compost bins from recycled materials and although I've been chucking all my compostable material into them I've not been great with the area as a whole. Weeds (nettles) had run rampant and it hadn't been turned. I decided to get in there and sort it all out. 

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First job was to remove anything growing, then to get in there and turn the compost into the next bin. I was impressed with what I found. The stuff was beautiful, lovely, black and crumbly. Not quite finished though so putting it into the next bin for at least twelve months is the right thing to do. 

She's helping apparently, on "chicken Guard" to stop the hens getting in the garden. 

I then covered the full bin with black plastic, the end that was added is just a pallet screwed to the bin!

Not wanting to wait too long to use some of that goodness I burnt a couple of holes in the top and planted a few winter squash in there (Oregon homestead sweetmeats - I'm really looking forward to trying these!) I've seen squash growing on compost heaps lots of times so I thought this might be a good way to squeeze in a few extra plants. 

It's still not quite frost free here (although I hope it is really) so I covered them with some make shift cloches, my wife had brought these umbrellas for a school project that didn't get used, I decided to use them in the garden straigth away, should give them a head start if nothing else. 

Since taking the picture below I've already half filled this bin. 

Looking at the two empty beds I decided to make a "wilting table" I got the idea from a Facebook group the other day (it was posted by Those Plant People) and straight away when I saw it I thought I could use one. 

Rather than build something purpose made I found some weld mesh and some lengths of timber and laid it on top of the two empty bins. 

The idea behind this is you wilt the weeds and dry out their roots before doing anything with them. I'm not sure how well this works but I'm going to give it a try. I think once they're bone dry they shouldn't come back to life in the compost but I'll do a few experiments before I start chucking it in there. 

I'm planning on getting a few pallets that I've got around the place and making up another bank of compost bins at the weekend. I can certainly fill them pretty quickly and I have the sheep shed to muck out soon. Last years muck is in a pile but I don't think there is much of it left as it seems to disappear, keeping it enclosed should mean I get to use more of it where it's needed! 

How much compost do you make?

How organised is your compost area?

Have you ever used a wilting table?

Making Compost Bins From Recycled Materials

Yesterday I knocked up some "rustic" compost bins and they didn't cost me a penny. 

I'm always thinking I need to sort out a proper composting system, as I use loads and produce no end of garden waste (lots of weeds as well). I'd put it off for the same reason as I had with the garden gates so I decided to just knock some together with what I had to hand. 

The area I chose to put it is just in the field outside the veg garden. This means I'll be able to fill it without leaving the garden and when I want to empty it I haven't got too far to walk. Unfortunately it's in full sun but I'll cover it with cardboard to keep the moisture in.

 The back is made out of an old shed I had put in the burning pile. I then added some posts in front to fix it to and to divide it up into four bays. I then added five posts four feet in front of these to fix the sides to.

 Using some old floor boards from our living room renovation (never throw anything away!), I nailed the sides on leaving a gap between each board. 

As you can see, it's certainly rustic (rough) but they'll do the job for a few years. I might add some removable front slats as well so they can be filled right up. 

The top bay will be for my chicken muck and the others will be for this summers garden waste mixed with straw and lawn clippings. My plan being to fill the one at the bottom, then move all that into the next one up and then fill the first again and repeat. That way I'll be turning my compost and be able to use it faster. I doubt it will happen though as I know what I'm like! 

How does everyone else make their compost? 

8 Tons Of Black Gold!

I know I'm lucky when it comes to my family. Even luckier when my dad comes over on a Sunday morning to visit his grand daughters and brings 8 tons of muck with him! It was a welcome bonus and I know that manure is something I'm lacking when it comes to being self sufficient.

 As the ground is still quite wet we had to dump it in the next field over to the garden but it will be worth the walk with the wheel barrow, as some of this muck is lovely and well rotted. 

The strawy bits I will remove and leave for another year to rot down and the rest will go into the garden or the orchard to feed all my plants and improve the soil.

One day I'd like to be in a situation where I'm not having to import muck like this to make my garden grow, instead having animals here to produce it for me (myself included when I get round to building a composting toilet). 

I'm still trying to improve the soil at the moment from the quite heavy clay so I'm having to use more than I would normally, but it's handy having a father who is a farmer and can bring large quantities for me - even if it was a surprise! So with this and the wood chip I've got most of what I need for the gardening year, except potting compost which is something I'm going to have to work on producing myself. 

How much muck does everyone use in their homestead each year?

Cow Muck

 My amazing dad brought me some muck round the other night. Around 6 tons he recons but I think it could be quite a bit more!


Lucky I don't have to move it from here!

Our plans did change some what on where we were going to tip it when the trailer sank in to it's axle going across the second field! We decided that was the best (and only) place for it to go.

Can you see where he's been?

 Luckily he came with the loader and bucket so he could move it from there and dump it in the veg garden. This meant a lot less barrowing for me which was good as there is a lot of muck to move.


All the soft fruit has had a good mulch of well rotted muck

Still quite a bit to spread on the garden!

As this garden was just grass on a clay soil before I need to add a lot of well rotted material over the next few years to make it easy to work so this is just the beginning.
Anyone else getting bulk amounts of compost or muck to add to their veg patch?