I have quite a large compost bed, yes more like a bed than a bin, which I just add, turn and attend to throughout the year, and harvest when needed. Nothing special, I just make sure I add variety to it, anything that was once alive like leaves, kitchen scraps, old natural fiber clothes, destroyed from gardening, shredded paper from the office, soggy cardboard used to smother weeds, weeds, some manure if I come across it, and grass cuttings, of which there are always plenty, and that I stack over the top, like a thick shag pile carpet, to keep the heat and damp in. And then turning it every once and a while, of course.
And just as I needed it, under that wild carpet, there it all is, tons of it ready and waiting for use. And if you have got it, you might as well spread it around. And that is exactly what I did over the weekend. To be honest, it was a little depressing looking at the garden beds, as the last few months had flooded and washed away so much of what I had once prepared and planted, so that just one glance at all the straggling, sprawling mess was a little dejecting.
But not now. In the rare heat last week, I pulled all that straggles and strugglers out, then spread great thick heaps of compost and old matured horse poo throughout all the beds around the office, as well as adding some topsoil I had lying about, and now they look ready and eager to go. And for the first time in a while, the beds and I look a lot better for it. And as luck would have it, I can hardly believe I call it luck, as soon as I had finished, the rain came down and soaked it all in and mixed it all together – delicious!
Now I will just leave it for a week or so to settle and then start the great planting of 2023, which hopefully will be better than the great drenching of 2022. On this Autumns menu are onions, broad beans, cauliflower, kale, leeks, leafy greens, peas, and silverbeet. And the frames are waiting for the netting that will be needed to keep all the pests and critters away, so that in a months' time (not a moth time), I should be enjoying the veg.
I will keep you posted on the progress.
And meanwhile, the compost pile has started again, and the cycle continues.
Enjoy
Peter
