• Welcome to The Bushcraft Forum

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to join then please Register

Compost

Joecole

Joecole

Very Obsessed
Messages
15,603
Points
2,240
Age
78
So many myths about compost but even if you live in a flat you can produce some but let's concentrate on the average small garden. You only need 3 small pallets nailed together to form a 3 sided box and a piece of old carpet.
Start with a six inch layer of coarse material on the bottom to allow airflow then add soft vegetable matter. If you can find them nettles, comfrey plants, veg peelings but not cooked ones, wood pelleted cat litter, sawdust and eggshells and even the contents of your hoover bag, oh and don't forget your torn up newspapers. Give it all a good soak cover it with the carpet and let the heat build up. Incidentally if you add the mown grass from the lawn it will need to be mixed with the more coarse material or it will pack down and prevent air circulation.
Ideally its better to have two boxes because after ten to twelve weeks the whole pile should be turned over top to bottom and the easiest way is to turn it into a second bin. Six months on and you should have perfect compost
 
Been making my own compost for decades now, you can't beat it. No crap in it, no chemicals, just rich Black and Earthy goodness that your plants will love. Here's the thing with compost I've found, the better quality stuff you put into it the better results, simple!
 
The Boogie Man said:
Been making my own compost for decades now, you can't beat it. No crap in it, no chemicals, just rich Black and Earthy goodness that your plants will love. Here's the thing with compost I've found, the better quality stuff you put into it the better results, simple!
Click to expand...
I agree, I have two large veg plots at mother in laws and for those I keep 3 large compost bins on the go all year round. One of those is primarily for leaf mould. Rightly or wrongly every so often I throw in a few handfuls of fish blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure
 
Joecole said:
I agree, I have two large veg plots at mother in laws and for those I keep 3 large compost bins on the go all year round. One of those is primarily for leaf mould. Rightly or wrongly every so often I throw in a few handfuls of fish blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure
Click to expand...
Me too Joe, Blood fish & bone is a great activator. I also put fresh Wood ash into the pile it's full of nutrients. The odd pint of piss doesn't hurt either.
 
The Boogie Man said:
Me too Joe, Blood fish & bone is a great activator. I also put fresh Wood ash into the pile it's full of nutrients. The odd pint of piss doesn't hurt either.
Click to expand...
The odd pint of piss is an old gardeners trick, I did try using garrota accelerator but it never really worked for me
 
Here's a tip I got from an old Boy who grew the best Plum Toms I've ever seen. He got an old Onion sack and filled it with well rotted Horse manure, suspend the bag in your water butt and make "Compost Tea". Plants love it.
 
The Boogie Man said:
Here's a tip I got from an old Boy who grew the best Plum Toms I've ever seen. He got an old Onion sack and filled it with well rotted Horse manure, suspend the bag in your water butt and make "Compost Tea". Plants love it.
Click to expand...
yep, liquid feed. You can do the same with Borage and nettles chucked in an old water butt then just let it rot, stinks like hell but it works
 
Joecole said:
The odd pint of piss is an old gardeners trick, I did try using garrota accelerator but it never really worked for me
Click to expand...
Spot on Joe----I found the same thing, I used that powdered accelerator---supposed to "kickstart" your compost heap---didn't work, or seemed to have no effect whatsoever. The old gardeners knew, and science has proved that your piss is already filtered and the chemicals in it are far purer than those made in a factory, plus you can apply it at body temperature:)
 
Yes, the old boys new their stuff, I'll tell you a funny story, when I left the army in 85 and settled in Suffolk I got my first allotment and not being a hundred percent sure of what I was doing I asked the old boy (well over 70) when was the best time to start planting, his response "When you can sit with your bare arse on the ground for 10 minutes and It don't feel cold boy then you know it's time"
 
Joecole said:
Yes, the old boys new their stuff, I'll tell you a funny story, when I left the army in 85 and settled in Suffolk I got my first allotment and not being a hundred percent sure of what I was doing I asked the old boy (well over 70) when was the best time to start planting, his response "When you can sit with your bare arse on the ground for 10 minutes and It don't feel cold boy then you know it's time"
Click to expand...
Tell me about it Joe, I'm chomping at the bit to start planting but I know it's too early for the sort of stuff we like. I'm itching to get the tatties in but the ground is still to wet & cold.
 
The Boogie Man said:
Tell me about it Joe, I'm chomping at the bit to start planting but I know it's too early for the sort of stuff we like. I'm itching to get the tatties in but the ground is still to wet & cold.
Click to expand...
I've just put up a post about that Boogie, down here we can start doing stuff inside but living on heavy clay there's not a lot to be done outside which is why I've gone with raised beds in one of my plots and filled them with good quality to soil. In my greenhouses all my pots are covered with cloches made with old plastic clear bottles with the bottoms cut out and tops removed
 
Erbswurst said:
If the clay is to heavy, you should add sand and half rotten compost.

Throw the mowed grass under the berries, where it belongs to!
Click to expand...
The grass mowings get dug in just as they are Erbswurst. Even with sand and grit in the soil it's been so wet here that the soil turns to a claggy mess as soon as you put weight on it
 
Yes, even from one end of the garden to the other can be big differences.
That is the reason, why advice from an old neighbour is far worthier than every book.
 
I agree, most of what I know has been learned from older people
 
The Boogie Man said:
Me too Joe, Blood fish & bone is a great activator. I also put fresh Wood ash into the pile it's full of nutrients. The odd pint of piss doesn't hurt either.
Click to expand...
My friend's sons were allowed to pee on the compost heap as a "treat" when they were young.
Comfrey is another compost accelerator and another smelly compost tea can be made from it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top