Doh! Help please:)

[Deleted]

Thanks S S I recently got rid of my compost bin , bought it from the council,the outlet door wasn't very big which only allowed me to access small amounts from the front,. I have since
been putting green waste in with rubbish and its breakig my heart
JOAN

[andy]

Iirc....and old gardener told me to add lime (as in calcium carbonate....not citrus) to compost heaps. Not sure if it helped with the breakdown or it just neutralised the acid from decomposition

[Deleted]

Thanks J L Must have a go at making my own composter , I'll try your method, can't bare wasting any more greenstuff,. MY soil is in fab condition 'cos,of composting in the past
By the way j l my Grandfather was Cornish, never knew Him' though , Mother from Plymouth.

Cheers Joan*******

[Dutchy]

I made these beehive lookalike composters.
How to make them is in one of Geoff Hamilton's books on cottage gardening.
They work very well for me.
I have them on concrete slabs but before I fill with garden waste I empty my last years soil from pots in there. I suppose you could also put some garden soil in first. From there they get a good start. They can drain into the gravel they have plenty of air and because they are made of stacked layers of framework make for easy access.
Dutchy

[Deleted]

Has any one noticed that there don't seem as many worms in the compost this year, I'm having trouble keepng up with the greenhouse frog, he is still active, the compost seems alright though. Perhaps it was the heat in Summer.

[Deleted]

captaincabbage said:

I also have been in extensive research (by this I mean I've actually spoken to real living organic farmers and the bleepin' Soil Association) of leguminous crops, especially the planting of field beans on organic farms and their effects of fixing nitrogen in the soil. Everyone I have spoken to in the farming world says they are at best a neutral, rather than beneficial fixing crop and used to feed cattle. Makes me wonder why my legume roots are still in the soil.

The real nitrogen fix is red clover or similar for 2 years.

Not an expert on the matter but why do my brassicas grown where my beans have grown do better than those that haven't - in all ways - sprouts grown where the beans were have blown (too much nitrogen) but haven't where they weren't. Other brassicas just bigger and better. Generations who have rotated this way just cannot be wrong - can they?

* Of all the species investigated grazing rye is by far the most effective for preventing nitrate leaching since it becomes established so rapidly and continues to grow throughout the winter period.
* Legumes, particularly vetch, significantly increase the mineral N available to plants in the first season after their incorporation. The timing and quantity of nitrogen released can be manipulated by altering the incorporation date.
* Crops grown after the incorporation of green manures tend to be higher yielding than those following bare soil; this effect is most evident in soil where available nitrogen levels are low.
* The incorporation of both rye and vetch can cause inhibition of seed germination and this can have serious implications for the establishment of drilled crops (such as spinach) if they are sown too soon.
* Mineralisation of the nitrogen in rye continues throughout the first autumn after its incorporation. If the land is kept bare this can result in considerable leaching (effectively postponed from the previous winter) but this excess nitrogen can be effectively utilised by winter agricultural and horticultural crops, e.g. winter cereals and winter cabbage. By the second winter after incorporation this extra leaching has declined to background levels. Green manures must therefore be carefully integrated into the rotation to maximise their benefits and to reduce the risk of loosing their nitrogen by leaching.

www.gardenorganic.org.uk/research/ireswcov.php

[4pygmies]

No, I don't think they are wrong. Modern farmers grow so intensively that they use quick fix methods and chemicals but gardeners can use the long haul techniques honed over hundreds of years(so can farmers but they don't generally!). Despite our huge amount of knowledge and research I don't think we still have much more than a slight working knowledge of how plants and animals interact with the soil. I firmly believe that using a modicum of common sense and having an awareness of a specific plant's needs are a much more sensible approach. I don't actually know why it all works but I know that it does! I am lucky in that I have a big enough garden to keep a few animals which enable me to feed my soil in an annual holistic cycle - I don't have a tidy garden, nor a particularly efficient one but I don't very often have problems with pests or diseases, and I don't fret too much about every plant looking perfect - it works for me. So if it ain't broke, I'm not fixing it! I don't know what that adds to the debate but that's my twopennorth!