Daily Archives: January 15, 2012

There is such a thing as a free lunch!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAApOeMxMD8

Yesterday I attended the “worm composting in the city” course at Walworth garden farm in SE17 as part of their introduction to gardening classes. They are free but if you have attended one before in the same year you have to pay a small charge. It was a tenner for this one, a small price to pay for a great day.

In the morning we went through making garden compost something that has been occupying me for the last few weeks, looking at how the process works and the best ways to do it and a visit to a couple of heaps they have on site (one which was “how not to do a heap” which reminded me of my first attempt!) After lunch we looked more into worm composting, something I hadn’t a clue about before going on the course. You can buy a wormery on the internet for about £65 but we looked at ways you could do it for much much cheaper! At the end of the process you get excellent worm compost and a liquid you can feed to your plants, brilliant! Give it a few weeks and I’ll be making one.

Like the last one I attended, it was very friendly, fun, informative to say the least and well enjoyable. We all should make more of what’s on offer at places like the Walworth garden farm. Tap in “free gardening courses” into google and see if there’s a course near you.

Thanks to Scarlett for the great day!

For more info about the courses on offer at Walworth garden farm: http://www.walworthgardenfarm.org.uk/projects

The real wild house (and garden)

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Nearly five years ago we moved into this house that needed so much work even a hardened DIYer would have wept. As a non-hardened DIYer I constantly wept. When you opened up the back doors onto the garden the top picture is what we were greeted with upon arrival. If you look closely in the bottom right panel on the patio door you can see the boarded over remains of the “rockweiller flap” aka a booted-through door.

On the first night we were sitting outside having a drink in the garden wondering if we had done the right thing (I still wonder sometimes) and had to come in after ten minutes what with all the weird rustling in the dense undergrowth.

The photo below is the same view four and a half years later (in mid-winter) and the garden is now cleared of mummified underpants and kid’s bikes and now is a blank canvas to work on. This is a work in progress and work that’s got be be done on little or no budget and this is what this blog is about!