Terry’s Composting TipsPART TWO - AUTUMN/WINTER I’m still thinking about next year, and remembering that there are as many ways of making compost, as there are gardeners and allotmenteers. Compost is rotted down organic matter - grass, leaves, weeds, kitchen waste, news paper, cardboard, straw, hay, junk mail, wood-shavings, sawdust, (make sure it is wood, and not HDF or MDF, that a lot of modern furniture is made of - I’m told it’s poisonous). Now the quickest way to make compost is via an animal; it is the best compost you can get. Fresh, it will burn the roots off most plants. I’m told roses like it fresh, but I don’t give it to them; they get compost the same as everything else, although most everything in my plot that is permanent gets little presents from the chickens in their turn. And that’s fresh!!! Perhaps the easiest way to make compost is to dig a trench and just keep throwing all your organic matter in. This really is for late autumn, winter and early spring, as the flies would be a problem at other times. It’s first class for your runner beans, their roots love to go down in amongst all that stuff, but if you don’t want to grow runner beans, then cover it up with nine inches (23 cm) of earth and start again in the spring, this time covering it up every time you add to it to keep the flies down. A bit of lime now and again works magic, and about every six to nine inches add an inch of soil. This helps to keep the nitrogen in; try to keep it just moist. If you're not going to dig it out later put at least nine inches of soil on top, and let the worms do the rest. The most usual way to make compost is to build a box to contain your organic rubbish and there are quite a few ways to do this, or you can buy a container - there are the plastic ones, slatted ones, round ones, oval ones, ones smaller at the top than the bottom, ones that go round and round, if you turn the handle (do the worms get sea sick?), or of course you can drive four posts into the ground, wrap chicken wire round and fill it up. This last one is good for leaves which given time will make wonderful leaf mould. Then again you can put all or some of this stuff into plastic bags with holes, add moisture, and bingo, compost, lovely soft crumbly black stuff, or if too wet, slimy black stuff. My favoured way is to get some pallets and some stout posts to form the corners so that the inside measures at least five feet (one and a half meters). This size allows the compost to get hot enough to kill the nasties you will want to dispose of as we are not allowed bonfires. These include weed seeds, potato haulms, bad potato’s, tomatoes etc, and it means you will have to build up the compost rapidly. I use three of these bins, the first is used to put the suitable organic stuff in until there is quite an amount, then put some coarse stuff in the bottom of the second bin with a good layer of stable manure on top of that, some of the material from the first bin, fresh grass if you can get it, (stale grass will do if not) and as many Russian comfrey leaves as you can spare. Make sure that everything is nicely damp and, if you do use your own urine, it is recommended that you dilute it ten water to one urine. This will help to increase the heat and is fine during the build up stage but once the initial burn has passed, no more urine. Cap all this with an inch or two of earth and then more add more stable manure. You need a good amount in any case, but if your supply of vegetable waste and soft weed material is small, you will need to bulk it up a bit with stable manure, then some more material from the first bin followed by the grass and comfrey leaves. Tree leaves should be kept separate but if you only have a few I would mix them with the stable manure. Also if you have access to other animal manures, except cat or dog, you can use that. Keep on till you reach the top, then put a good layer of earth on top, or a sheet of plastic to stop the gases escaping. This will keep the rain out so you can control the amount of moisture in the heap, and it will also draw the moisture to the top helping to keep the heap even. Then cover with an old blanket or sacking to keep it warm and dark; the worms like it dark. Fill up the third bin in the same way when you have enough material. Look out for part three!
Terence N Tucker
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