Hi Andy. I was surprised to see you put a base in your compost bins. I find that keeping the bottom open helps earthworms up from the native soil. Helps break up/break down the compost faster while leaving behind their nutrituous castings. Love the chain on the door! Maybe try it in one bin after emptying it and see what happens? Most everyone can grow greens in the shoulder seasons of late winter and early spring.
I add worms every now and then and there's plenty gaps for worms to get in, but the base just makes it easier to shovel compost out over time. We have a major bindweed problem here and that seems to grow through anything. 👍😁
Bindweed: Turn the soil to expose the deepest roots, break it up so that all the roots are exposed and then use a flame-gun. They don't like it. Makes them cough. 😉 Wood posts in soil. Bitumen paint, yes, but it costs money. I use a black bin bag - not a cheapie, a thick one - trimmed to size and then glued shut around the top with silicone then covered with a cut-down lath/thin batten to make a collar. For posts and frames above the ground, paint with the old oil when you get your car drained. Take along a suitably sized container (10L?) to drain into and your mechanic will be happy to give your your old oil back bc it means he doesn't have to pay to get it taken away. It's a dark finish but it's the best wood preserver that I've ever found. Use it and you don't have to buy the bitumen paint. It will stop the planks in your compost frame rotting along with the contents. Rhododendrons: Beautiful to look at, but they release a chemical into the soil that poisons any other plants around them and it takes years to degrade. Equally buddleia - make sure you dead-head the flowers at the end of each season or as soon as they start browning or they will self-seed and they grow like the devil himself is chasing them out of the ground. If you like structure and unusual flower formations, take a look at Leycestera formosa - Himalayan honeysuckle. It has beautiful deep red and white flowers that droop in bracts. It's an upright, not a true climber, but can be fastened to a wall or fence if you want. Caution: the berries are poisonous to mammals, but birds love them. To stop the birds eating scatter-sown seed I peg out strips of cheapie net curtain (2mm weave) about 6" off the ground with the ends draped. A friend does the same thing but uses old tent poles - the bendy type - to make tunnels that keep the cabbage whites and moths off his brassicas. The nets let enough sunlight through for the plants but keep the wood pigeons off and the coarse weave is wide enough to let rain, hosepipe and canned water through. Hawthorn - you can use the haws to make a tea as well as a preserve. Check out Country Life Vlog at www.youtube.com/@country_life_vlog/videos for all kinds of preserving methods as I recall you had canning storage in mind for your utility room's top shelf. 🙂 Reading this all back it sounds like I'm telling you what you must do. Nah, just my writing style, and it's all suggestions only. (Edited for spelling errors.)
What do you think of these over some of the composters you can buy? We have a small one in the garden from the previous owners, plastic type you'd get at any DIY shop. It is massively too small for our use though (several raised beds for veg), so I am debating what to do for next year. I like what you've done here, so I will be sharing this with my partner. Space is a bit of an issue for us, we could get something in like you've made, but it may dominate a little, but it can be hidden, as you have done so. The tiny one we have did produce some compost though which is still cool to see!
Not something I need to do, but something you could try: As you say, stuff breaks down in a compost heap if its cut up small enough. Glossy leaves, as you also say, take forever to break down, so put them in an old bucket whose lid you can cut from the edge to a centre hole, so it fits around your strimmer's column. Then blitz them for ten minutes or so, pick out any remaining big bits, empty the shredded stuff into your compost heap, add back the remaining big bits to the bucket and blitz again. Having the lid on around the strimmer column will stop bits of shredded leaf blowing out all over your grass. Mrs Mac will thank you profusely for not using her food processor... 😅 Probably best to read up on the plants concerned to check for poisonous elements before you compost, and if they are poisonous probably best to burn them instead.
good job
Wonderful job! 🤗🎊🥰 I particularly liked the use of Bitumen on the post ends *never considered that before..
Cheers! Hope the bitumen helps. I've seen a few folk recommend it. 👍
Hi Andy. I was surprised to see you put a base in your compost bins. I find that keeping the bottom open helps earthworms up from the native soil. Helps break up/break down the compost faster while leaving behind their nutrituous castings. Love the chain on the door! Maybe try it in one bin after emptying it and see what happens? Most everyone can grow greens in the shoulder seasons of late winter and early spring.
I add worms every now and then and there's plenty gaps for worms to get in, but the base just makes it easier to shovel compost out over time. We have a major bindweed problem here and that seems to grow through anything. 👍😁
Bindweed: Turn the soil to expose the deepest roots, break it up so that all the roots are exposed and then use a flame-gun. They don't like it. Makes them cough. 😉
Wood posts in soil. Bitumen paint, yes, but it costs money. I use a black bin bag - not a cheapie, a thick one - trimmed to size and then glued shut around the top with silicone then covered with a cut-down lath/thin batten to make a collar. For posts and frames above the ground, paint with the old oil when you get your car drained. Take along a suitably sized container (10L?) to drain into and your mechanic will be happy to give your your old oil back bc it means he doesn't have to pay to get it taken away. It's a dark finish but it's the best wood preserver that I've ever found. Use it and you don't have to buy the bitumen paint. It will stop the planks in your compost frame rotting along with the contents.
Rhododendrons: Beautiful to look at, but they release a chemical into the soil that poisons any other plants around them and it takes years to degrade. Equally buddleia - make sure you dead-head the flowers at the end of each season or as soon as they start browning or they will self-seed and they grow like the devil himself is chasing them out of the ground. If you like structure and unusual flower formations, take a look at Leycestera formosa - Himalayan honeysuckle. It has beautiful deep red and white flowers that droop in bracts. It's an upright, not a true climber, but can be fastened to a wall or fence if you want. Caution: the berries are poisonous to mammals, but birds love them.
To stop the birds eating scatter-sown seed I peg out strips of cheapie net curtain (2mm weave) about 6" off the ground with the ends draped. A friend does the same thing but uses old tent poles - the bendy type - to make tunnels that keep the cabbage whites and moths off his brassicas. The nets let enough sunlight through for the plants but keep the wood pigeons off and the coarse weave is wide enough to let rain, hosepipe and canned water through.
Hawthorn - you can use the haws to make a tea as well as a preserve. Check out Country Life Vlog at www.youtube.com/@country_life_vlog/videos for all kinds of preserving methods as I recall you had canning storage in mind for your utility room's top shelf. 🙂
Reading this all back it sounds like I'm telling you what you must do. Nah, just my writing style, and it's all suggestions only. (Edited for spelling errors.)
What do you think of these over some of the composters you can buy? We have a small one in the garden from the previous owners, plastic type you'd get at any DIY shop. It is massively too small for our use though (several raised beds for veg), so I am debating what to do for next year. I like what you've done here, so I will be sharing this with my partner. Space is a bit of an issue for us, we could get something in like you've made, but it may dominate a little, but it can be hidden, as you have done so. The tiny one we have did produce some compost though which is still cool to see!
Not something I need to do, but something you could try: As you say, stuff breaks down in a compost heap if its cut up small enough. Glossy leaves, as you also say, take forever to break down, so put them in an old bucket whose lid you can cut from the edge to a centre hole, so it fits around your strimmer's column. Then blitz them for ten minutes or so, pick out any remaining big bits, empty the shredded stuff into your compost heap, add back the remaining big bits to the bucket and blitz again. Having the lid on around the strimmer column will stop bits of shredded leaf blowing out all over your grass. Mrs Mac will thank you profusely for not using her food processor... 😅
Probably best to read up on the plants concerned to check for poisonous elements before you compost, and if they are poisonous probably best to burn them instead.