Making Lovely Garden Compost

I love to make garden compost. It's a wonderful way of recycling  garden waste and putting nutrients back into the soil. It's a simple process provided you follow a few simple rules. First you need to make a compost heap. This can be just a free standing heap but it is usually better, and tidier, to have a compost bin. My first attempt at a compost bin was a container purchased from a gardening magazine which consisted of a metal frame with a rather flimsy plastic cover. This did not last for long and I then purchased a rigid plastic bin with a lid. This was rather like a bottomless dustbin with air vents in the sides. It looked a bit like a Dalek! Although it was large enough to take plenty of garden waste, it was difficult to turn and mix the contents. Also as it was completely covered it needed water adding regularly to keep the contents moist. It seemed to take a long time for the waste to rot down and produce a good usable compost so last year I decided to get rid of the plastic bin and build a timber compost bin. Using some old fence posts and wooden pallets I constructed a nice bin about 1.5 metres long by 1 metre wide and 1 metre high. This has performed much better and I already have some well rotted compost at the bottom of the bin which can be used to enrich the vegetable patch and top dress the flower borders. When starting a compost heap put some coarser material in a layer at the bottom of the bin. Not too woody plant stems or hedge clippings would be ideal. Then add layers of garden waste such as annual weeds, tops of perennial weeds, dead leaves, prunings and grass cuttings. Try not to have a large concentration of one type of material but mix it well. Water the heap if it is dry but not too much. It needs to be nicely damp, not soggy. To keep the heat in you can cover it with an old piece of carpet or tarpaulin. Heat and moisture and a good mix of ingredients are all you need to produce good compost. Air is also important as composting is an aerobic process. The easiest way to introduce air is by turning the heap. Any container should have adequate ventilation to allow air to flow through.
You can add kitchen scraps to the heap but never put cooked food, meat or dairy products onto it as these can attract vermin. Also avoid using any plant material which is diseased, any weeds with seed heads, perennial weed roots or animal waste.

New Season Veg Patch

The last of the Leeks have now been lifted and the veg patch is being dug over ready for the new planting season. The first crop to go in this week will be the 'first early' potatoes. The variety I am growing this year is Arran Pilot which I have grown before. It is a good tasty potato which stores well.
Once the potatoes have been planted I will set up the bamboo canes in a wigwam formation ready for the runner beans. These will not be planted for at least a couple of months until the risk of frost is past. I like to mark out the areas where different crops are to be sown. Each year the type of crop is rotated to a different part of the veg patch to minimise the risk of disease building up in the soil. This method seems to be working well.
Lots of home made garden compost is dug into the veg patch each year to replenish the nutrients in the soil and this has resulted in a great improvement to the quality of the soil. I don't use any artificial fertilizers or any chemicals on my food crops. All my home grown veg is grown organically.

Cold Weather Casualties

There have been a few casualties of the extremely cold weather this year. The main loss is my evergreen Hebe shrub which had masses of white flowers throughout the summer, often flowering again during autumn and even into winter if the weather remained mild. I'm not sure of the exact variety of this Hebe as it was given to me by a friend many years ago. It is a shame to lose this shrub as it attracted lots of bees but I have decided to replace it with a couple of white flowered floribunda roses. I already have two 'Iceberg' floribunda roses in the front garden but, as they have never seemed to really thrive there, I will be moving them to the rear garden in place of the Hebe.

Other evergreen plants, such as the variegated Euonymous shrub, Holly bush and the Bay Tree, have also suffered with their outer leaves turning brown. At least they have survived and, with a bit of careful pruning, should recover their good looks.