Many of our properties in West Hill are Victorian or thereabouts and over the years, decades and centuries the soil has been enriched with all sorts of organic material. Many gardeners for the early part of the century would have incorporated vegetable peelings into the soil or sprinkled their borders with coal dust; one of my elderly clients regularly dusted the top of her lawn with coal dust claiming it kept the weeds at bay; I have no idea about the science of her decision, all I know is that her lawn was resplendent.
Composting is a habit I gained in my 30’s when I moved from a flat into a house. I had tended to my communal garden in my flat, but all the decisions had to be made by all the freeholders, so the freedom to do as I pleased was new to me. Added to this, the local council was promoting it’s pledge to provide every garden in the borough with free composting bins.
Getting a compost bin going to the hard part. It took years for me to work out a formula that worked for me. As my compost bins filled with grass clippings, prunings and raw vegetable waste I noticed nothing was happening, everything just sat there, belligerently not breaking down at all. I headed to the local library to mug up on the secrets of composting to find very little in the way of advice, but a visit to my father’s allotment answered all my questions and more. All the allotment folk had compost bins, and most importantly they had composters that worked and their owners were more than happy to show me the error of my ways.
Initially my new friends suspected I had plonked my compost bins on a hard standing, they explained that the worms need to be in contact with the soil; but I hadn’t broken this rule. Then they talked me through layering, and I was woefully guilty of this compost law. I would cut the grass and lob all the trimmings in one big heap, this was my first mistake. Thin layers of vegetable peelings, grass cuttings and pruned bits were required. Also my pruned bits and pieces were large branches of buddlejia, I needed to snip them down to hand sized pieces. The final rule surprised me, moisture. My bins were parched. As everything had dried out so much, just adding water was not going to cut it, as nothing would absorb the water quickly as it ran through to the soil. My solution was rather unpleasant but it really worked. I dug out a dusty old 1970’s blender which was hiding at the back of my kitchen cupboard and used it to store my vegetable peelings. When it was half full I would add water and blend the mixture to add it to the compost heap. The worms moved in and I never looked back. Once the internal temperature of the heap started to work there was no need for the blended mixture anymore.
Here are the basic rules of thumb:
1.Always on soil, never on a hard standing
2.Think layers
3.Cut down pruned bits to hand size
4.Moisture. Try blending or mixing wet material with water to add to your heap
And the final hint I got for those wise allotment folk was male urine really helped get things going; I’m not going to publicly endorse such a thing because our gardens are so small. You didn’t hear it from me.
Composting is an art form. Every compost heap is different, but the pure gold it produces will continue to enrich our soil for the price of a small receptacle, so isn’t it worth a go?
Nancy Kirk is a gardener who provides bespoke gardening lessons in your own garden. Packages start at £250. Contact westhillgardenoracle@gmail.com for details
The Whistler 