An interesting evening at the Gardener's Association yesterday evening and I've decided to put here what I can remember, as a record for me for the future. Everyone else reading it - I hope you find it interesting.
The title of the talk was "Compost Heaps and Practical Gardening" and it was given by a gentleman called Tony Budgen, who described his career as being a Head Gardener of a big house not too far away. His talk was very much of the practical aspects of gardening (as a matter of fact he clearly loved the subject - he didn't stop talking about it all the time he was with us.)
The idea compost heap will be a minimum of 6ft by 3 ft square with two posts placed equidistant in the center. Fill the heap as follows: 2 inch layer of vegetation, 2 inches of soil then a dusting of lime. Repeat until the heap is 4 foot high. Then pull out the posts, which will give the heap enough ventilation. After 4 months turn the heap.
In fact, of course, most of us last night (including myself) have the plasic compost bins which are Dalek shaped. He said don't forget to add spadefuls of soil to this along with the vegetation. And don't use the spent soil from pots when you've repotted the plant (or it's died) instead, as this will have no goodness in it.
The square plastic compost bins are better than the Dalek shaped ones as then compost can be removed from the little door at the base while you are still adding stuff to the top. Do not use the bins with wire netting or equivalent around the sides as the wind will just dry out the mixture and most of it just will not compost.
Any vegetation can go into the compost heap with the exception of bindweed and couch grass (guess what is found in my garden). Also you can add shredded paper, coffee grounds and tea leaves. Not egg shells as they just don't break down.
Sulphate of ammonia does exactly the same job as the much more expensive compost maker mixtures you buy in garden centers.
The way to start off Hyacynth bulbs is to plant them in a pot, put them outside and cover their pot with an upside-down one large enough to cover the pot completely so that it touches the ground all around. Sufficient water for the bulbs will go through the holes in the covering pot, which will otherwise keep off excess water. There will be no need to bring this indoors at all until the bulbs germinate and the shoots appear. Then treat them as usual.
Any seed or bulb should always be planted 3 times its own depth.
Now (February) is clean up time for herbaceous plants, so that new shoots find it easy to come to the surface. Then feed the ground. Good feeds for this are: blood, fish and bone; pelleted chicken manure; or Growmore.
4 comments:
Interesting! In the U.S. Midwest they have preached having a compost pile 3 x 3 x 3. They encourage you to turn the entire pile over several times, hosing it down with water so that it is damp, but not soggy. Dear Husband shifted to the slower version where you stack grass clippings and leaves and let Mother Nature do all the work.
You're obviously in a warmer climate than I am. We won't start cleanup until mid-March at the earliest. I have several outdoor clean-up projects that I hope DH will help me with, so it's going to be a busy March!
Buffy
Buffy,
I'm back and finally able to answer. I've done some research into composting lately as I decided to try it this year. What I discovered was that every source seems to have a (often subtle) different way of doing it. Certainly Mr Budgen gave the impression of having very confirmed ideas of how to garden. I was just noting his own advice on the subject.
He did say that grass cuttings could go on the compost heap but that leaves should be put in a heap and stored separately as they will take about 2 years before they finally break down enough for them to be used, mainly as a mulch.
I am bemused that you think we have warm winters, although CopCar made the same suggestion. I'd never really thought about it but I suspect that our winters are not as cold as yours. I was reading another blog from the Chicago area (which I can't find now) which was talking about the amount of snow your area has and how cold that is. We don't get that cold or that much snow, thank goodness.
We haven't had all that much snow in Kansas, this year--at least not where I live--the poor ranchers out in Western Kansas had a couple of blizzards that missed us. However, we've been having cold.
This morning was the warmest it's been upon my arising, for several days. When I went for my walk, it was 10 degrees F and the wind was blowing 10-15 miles/hour. I must remove my eye glasses in these conditions because the lenses fog up and freeze over, and I cannot see through them. When I turned into the wind, I pulled the neck scarf (that I had knitted myself last winter) up over my mouth and started mouth breathing--which helped a great deal.
Cop Car
P.S. I suspect that your cold is quite penetrating, with the humidity that I think you have. Not a trifling matter.
CopCar, I've seen several references on various websites in the last couple of days about parts of the US having lots of snow and very low temperatures. Not where you are, I hope. I have to admit that we don't get weather that cold or extreme in the part of GB where we live. Scotland and parts of Wales sometimes get dad winters (well, by our own standards) but rarely in Southern England and East Anglia where I live.
Having said all that there have been many comments the last couple of years about mild winters and possible global warming (now described as inevitable by the pundits over here).
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