Compost!

May. 2nd, 2010 09:11 pm
bunn: (garden)
When I make compost, I carefully make a giant sandwich of grass cuttings, finely chopped and shredded woody stuff and soft green weeds. 

So WHY is it  when I come to take the heap apart, I find it's mostly composed of horrible ropy ivy stems, straw, enormous woody twigs and couch grass roots????

I've put all the manky stuff back into the second heap to stew.  But I do now have a heap a couple of feet tall and 3 feet square of good quality brown stuff.  Hurray!
bunn: (garden)
 I was going to blog about this, but on reflection you can probably fill in the blanks just from the title and mood.

Instead, I shall note that I have today sown butternut squashes and pumpkins (possibly a bit late, but they do grow SO quickly once sown), and planted out  aubergines and pepper seedlings into  the greenhouse beds. 

Also that I very much love my new Swiss Hoe (Wilkinson), and that if you are looking for a decent commercial potting compost, you could go a lot further and fare a lot worse than Westlands new WestPlus peatfree.  Very pleased with the progress of everything I've potted into Westplus so far, both veg and flowers. 
bunn: (Default)
Not very impressed. Nice consistency, quite peaty and moist - but seems to be practically devoid of nutrients. It's a peat-free compost, but that doesn't have to mean lack of performance.

I planted some basil seeds in it some months ago: they got to about an inch tall and just stuck there. Yesterday, I gave the pot 4 rabbit droppings and watered them in. Today the seedlings are already noticeably taller!

Might be suitable for planting something like alpines that don't want a lot of feeding, but not good for bedding plants or anything that actually needs feeding.

However, it does seem to drain well and has remained free of fungus fly, which is a plus. Might be suitable for use mixed with the rich compost from the worm bins, or rabbit droppings.

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