Tag Archives: Compost heap

What a difference a day makes (again)

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We popped down to the compost heap just and the whole garden is well frosted over (above).  We wonder how those giant garlic bulbs are doing? Will a couple of days worth of a covering of polythene actually help save said bulbs? The foxglove plugs are still in pots on the windowsill waiting until we “build” a coldframe.

It’s funny as yesterday was a bright and sunny day and nowhere as cold as today. We went out with our good mate Mark B for a south London stroll which took in the only pedestrian railway crossing in London at Angerstien Wharf (here), Jools Holland’s studio and the Saxon Tumuli at Greenwich Park (top half of the above photo above). Even though in this John Rogers’ video here (at 20 mins in) the artist Andrew Kötting mentions Julian Cope told him they were pre-Paleolithic.The change in the weather today reminded me of many years ago when we went to Fordham Park Festival (here). We met an old punk bloke in his late 50’s wearing a biker’s jacket with a well faded Crass symbol on the back. He was ranting and raving about all of the estate agents, coffee companies and cupcake vendors who were fuming that they couldn’t have stalls at the site (“We don’t want all those capitalist b’s ruining our festy”). He reckoned they all got together the day before and with a bit of alchemy, influenced some bad weather to fall on the site (It was tipping it down all day even though it had been glorious sunshine the days leading up to the festival). We love that idea that with a bit of influence and getting around a table you can change the weather. Can we have some heat this week then?

What a day for gardening

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We’re not going to be in the garden much today what with the terrible weather (it’s tipping it down in south London at the moment) apart from just a few minutes ago when we brought the kitchen waste down the compost heap that is looking well healthy (if compost can look healthy that is).

The old bathroom mat that was keeping the warmth in has now decomposed and was full of brandling worms last time we saw it in one piece. Later this year we’re going to have a go at making another open type compost heap as they really are better than the darlek ones and you don’t graze your hand everytime you go to turn it! #vivalacompost

By the way we’re always on the look out for news of any good gardening events in our neck of the woods so if you hear of any seed swaps or potato days do give us a shout. Talking of which we’ve found a great list here on Garden Organic of forthcoming Seed Swaps. Only one in Bromley at the moment but we’re sure they’ll be more added soon. Have a look here. #gardenorganic #seedswaps #freeseeds

 

Rotting and Tomatoes

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The sun has been beating down this week and working its magic on the tomatoes as they’re starting to ripen quick. We’re still feeding the plants once a week (even though we are fast running out of liquid feed as the comfrey plants are hardly growing this year) and giving them a good water in the morning. They’re a different shape than what we’re used to but they are great taste wise. We assume they’re the Costoluto Fiorentino variety grown from seed picked up from the seed swap at Glengall Wharf Garden earlier this year. The San Marzano we also obtained there are coming on great too.

And our daily turning of the compost heap and cutting up of the waste as small as possible (not all the time as there’s whole onions and a mouldy orange in there) is starting to pay off. We reckon it’s a combination of those factors plus the open compost bin and the heat as well. This stuff should be able to be used in no time as soon as it all rots down. Sunshine keep doing your job but can we have some rain please?

Never mind the heatwave

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Even in the heatwave we’ve had some visitors to the garden. The stag beetle (we’re sure it is) above didn’t seem to mind the high temperatures. They look brilliant when they’re flying over at dusk (looking for a mate) like some small army tank/helicopter hybrid machine. More on the stag beetle here.

As it says on the site it’s good to keep some dead and decaying wood lying about as it’s a vital habitat for them. So don’t “Keep it tidy” when it comes to some parts of the garden, the beetles will thank you for it.

Also the compost heap at the bottom of the garden seems to be thriving in the heat. We’re trying to give it a daily turn over with a garden fork making sure the ingredients are well mixed up which at the same time adds air into the pile this speeding up the rotting process. The pic below is pre “The Big Mix Up”. We prefer the traditional pile now as opposed to those dalek ones that seem to take the skin off your hands when giving it a fork over.

Enjoy this spell of cooler weather!

Operation Foxglove

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It was another lovely weekend so we did a bit of tipping around with a hoe around the bed nearest the house that have the foxgloves in them. We were given three plants a couple of years ago and they’ve spread like wildfire. There’s some dahlias in there that still haven’t sprouted yet and we wonder if we’re either not patient enough or something’s wrong with them.

The bed of the right hand side had a tidy up too. It’s looks a million times better and we can actually see what we have in there now. A few of the plants were bought on special offer on QVC off the telly last year. We were told they supposedly do a great gardening show on there on a Sunday morning.

As for the madness that is the compost heap, the stuff in there is breaking down a lot quicker than the dalek and it’s hell of a lot easier the get a fork in for a quick mix too.

Trouble is at the moment there’s a lot of flies about there meaning it’s a bit unbalanced. There’s a lot more of the “green” stuff in there and needs a bit more of the “browns” so in the next few days we’ll give it a good mix and throw in some cardboard and egg boxes. It’s all kicking off in the garden now!

It may be cold outside but inside there’s always music

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There’s not much to see in the garden at the moment but the compost heap is still composting, the fish are swimming at the bottom of the pond and there’s protection all around the garden for the forthcoming cold snap(s). Apart from the odd bit of tidying up we haven’t done that much apart from visiting the compost heap with the odd teabag and veg peelings. When we can remember we always stick a small layer of already made compost on the heap from the dalek bin beside it which will hopefully help the whole process.

We’re also in the process of looking through our seed tin. Even if we can’t do anything in the garden at the moment at least we can plan for the spring.

And if you’re finding the cold is getting to you, get your stereo/headphones on and have a listen to the studio version of Radio Clarion for an hour of trumpet based delights, well worth listening to. It also features at 8.40 minutes in a mix from One Deck Pete called “Don’t blow your own trumpet” with tracks from The Conet Project, The June Brides, Goldmaster Studio, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit & Holger Czukay and Handbook.

And thanks to our good friend Gerry Hectic here’s a great trackfrom Telefís ‘Falun Gong Dancer’ with Jah Wobble – Donkey’s Gudge Dub. Excellent stuff with a nice video too.

Madness, madness, they call it (zuchinni) madness

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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!

Coir baby that’s really free!

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The above looks more like a construction project especially with the wood saw and the B&Q 99p bucket but we were trying out the coco grow+. It’s that coir stuff that when you add water it becomes potting/seed compost. Not bad if you’ve had sciatica and your carrying skills ain’t as good as they were last year. We didn’t want to use all of it so took the hint from Shannon’s who told us to use a saw to cut it. A good tip if you don’t want to use it all at once. We’ll keep you updated on how it goes and if the plants like the medium.

We also couldn’t get to the garden fork today to turn over the compost heap for the first time this year so grabbed a spade that had it’s uses to cut in half some old cabbage stalks and gone off sweet potatoes. It’s hard trying to turn the compost in those dalek bins but as long as you don’t mind the odd scraping of the knuckles it sort of works. Well sort of.

And here’s a tune you may hear on a forthcoming mix, it’s from Khotin and the track’s called Heavy Ball.

Still life (with worms attached)

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And the heat in there is impressive too! Look at the build up of brandling worms at the bottom. We’ve just seen on the web you can buy them, 100 for £11! All we did is put a wet piece of cardboard down the bottom of the garden. Two days later, worms! Thanks to the great Bob Flowerdew for that! #theuniverseinthecompostbin

(Not) the flowers in your dustbin

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A good mate recently said that a druid told him once that a full moon encourages flowers to bloom. Well we had a nice full moon the other night which must have brought these out that were all seen today. The broad (broader than broadway) beans up near the house:

And on a horse chestnut up the local park spotted whilst on our lockdown exercise hour:It’s been a mixed bag of weather here today in London and tonight is supposedly to be around the 7 degree mark (Wednesday night it’s back down to 4 apparently), tropical compared to last night, but the frost protection may be put in place again. Just to be on the safe side…