Making Compost

THIS WEEK, I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN MAKING COMPOST!

Rich finally managed to finish making our new wooden compost bin. It’s HUGE! I have no idea what the capacity is, but it’s around 120cm in width and length, and 120cm tall at the back. I’m rubbish at maths, so I’m sure that there’s someone out there that can work it out for me.

My new compost bin is yet to have a lid (we were thinking a wooden lid on hinges eventually), but it does have a gate at the front, the idea being that I could easily access the heap to turn it and fill it, and eventually empty it. It doesn’t really matter about the lid – there are both aerobic bacteria (need oxygen/air) and anaerobic bacteria  (don’t need oxygen/air) that work on breaking down the soil, and do just as good a job as each other.

Monty Don says it’s best to have two or three open compost bins, but because we bought the wood from a DIY centre, it did end up costing a fair amount. So for now I’ve just got the one. I’d previously advertised on Freecycle for wood odds and ends without success, and the compost scenario was getting a bit desperate.

What I’d called my compost heap beforehand was basically a 20ft pile of rotting matter that was never turned or tended to. It was just too big to handle. For really good compost, you need to keep turning it and there was no way I could access it properly. So I’ve taken the top layer off with the least rotted matter and put it in the new wooden bin. The stuff underneath, although in places full of sticks, is gorgeous. It smells divine – so earthy and rich, one of my favourite smells.

I still have to finish transferring part of the old heap into the bin, inbetween the really laborious task of sieving the good stuff through my garden riddle into the barrow. I’ve been filling some of my vacant (currently, not for too long) veg plots with the home-made compost in a bid to boost the nutrition and structure of our free-draining sandy soil. There’s PLENTY to go around, and the idea is that eventually it’ll all be used on all the veg plots and borders at the Smallest Smallholding, as well as on the allotment. A big job, but someone (i.e. me) has got to do it…

Either way, I’m sure that the amount of compost I’m going to have available will save me a tonne of money, even recouping the cost of making the wooden bin.