Tales from the heap

The other week we cleared out some grass clippings and recent vegetation from out of the dalek compost bin and stuck it into the old fashioned “out in the elements” heap of old next to it. Up until a few days earlier the wooden frame was full of a few years worth of sticks and ivy that had never rotted down but we moved that into the local council’s garden refuse bin leaving the bottom of the dalek with a load of brandling worms chomping their way through some well rotted warm debris.

Well we looked in the “Open to the wilds of SE23” compost area today (we took off the once stylish now mouldy, bath mat cover first) and gave it a good fork over and it seems to be rotting much quicker than it was in the dalek, not sure if it’s the weather or just being outdoors but whatever it is, it’s working well (see above).

The quarter full darlek (above) is also doing well, there’s less brandling worms compared to last time we looked which means it’s on its way to maturing. Composting well is a bit of a science but it’s worth delving into (no pun intended) as your garden will thank you for it!

Madness, madness, they call it (zuchinni) madness

Big thanks to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us this picture of a volunteer (plants that self seed) zuchinni (aka courgette) that has come up on the compost heap. They thrive in rich soil so a compost heap is ideal. To say the plant is going mad is an understatement!

We only got one plant that we got from a new seed supplier we found out about this year and it’s really suprised us as it’s so large. We only sowed two, one got eaten by slugs and snails and this one has gone barmy, taking over the garden path. Only a couple of fruits so far and one of them was one of those forgotten ones which grew to a fair old size!

Looking at Justin’s site here we were reminded of this tune below and a great episode of  Wireless Nights (Megahertz) from a while ago available to download here. An interesting listen if you like all that shortwave radio business! Cheers Justin!