A cold compost heap

Cold? Hot? Yes there is a difference in the types of compost heaps you can have.  Keep one well contained and most importantly turned often and you can find the process of breaking down the garden material into compost is quick.

Well, quickish. The best I have ever done is six months. And that invovled actually getting my compost fork into the one bin and shifting it into another. And adding a compost activator to move things along. (What is in compost activator granules? No idea, but it’s probably concentrated urine or some such wierdo delight.)

Ah, yes. Those were the Keen Years. When I was dutiful about my compost heaps.  Right now I’m in the Overwhelmed Years when I weed like mad and just lob the stuff on the top.  There is great rotted compost underneath, but I never see it as I keep adding to the pile.

Or should I just pretend I am making use of the cold compost method.  Doing nothing means you can get compost in about two years. Eighteen months if all is well.  Not too much rain, but enough, the right mix of nitrogren rich weeds with woody stems.  People write how to manuals about this stuff.

There is no getting away from the fact that compost is not a photogenic subject.  So here is a shot of the lovely cotoneaster fruiting madly away just next to the big heap.

And where are we? Right behind the potting shed on the far border of the farm.

The border between us and Jean Daniel’s farm is no thicker than a sometimes functioning electric fence.

And guess who is just hovering over the other side when I work close to the edge?

Ulysse. 

And he’s not interested in my compost heap either. All he cares about are the steady supply of apples I provide.

But compost heaps are such essential parts of everyone’s gardens. They do make a huge difference to the quality of vegetables I grow.

And with Nicolas being so helpful, I was able to give a good few bucketfuls of lovely rich compost to the base of every fruit tree in the orchard.

And I even have enough left to actually mulch every plant in the soft fruit orchard as well.

But boy did I have a major weeding and pruning job there first.  With the absurdly warm weather, I am making the most by getting all the weeding jobs done without having to endure freezing fingers.

It makes for dull reading I fear, but a happy garden.