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Ten
years ago our garden was a very large grassy area with the soil
full of flint and clay. I had little knowledge of gardening at the
time, but had been told that if I wanted to grow a healthy and
happy garden I should pay very special attention to the soil.
Healthy soil meant healthy plants with less chance of pests and
diseases getting a look in and, best of all, no nasty
chemicals!
Living
as we do in a farming area I made some enquiries and soon took
delivery of several lorry loads of well rotted manure from a farmer
clearly glad to have somewhere to offload it! This turned out to be
one of the best investments I have ever made for our garden and
soon after, as the plants did indeed thrive, I began making our own
garden compost.
Each
Spring as the soil starts to warm up but is still moist, last years
compost is ready to use in the garden as a soil conditioner
and also as a mulch. I add about a 5cm layer of garden compost in
my borders after weeding, carefully avoiding crowns of plants, or
stems.
This
will achieve a number of things - including supplying the soil with
humus and nutrients which will have been compromised after a long,
rainy winter.
Weed
seeds, too, will be inhibited from germinating as light can’t
reach the soil, and soil moisture will be locked in as the mulch
dramatically slows down evaporation.
Harrod Horticultural have a great range of wooden compost bins to
choose from, click here to see more...
 Composting kitchen and
garden waste is an environmentally friendly source of organic
matter, helps to reduce landfill and won’t cost you a penny.
The best compost is roughly an equal amount of soft, nitrogen-rich
material ‘green’ (e.g. grass clippings, vegetable waste
including tea bags and coffee grains, annual weeds - avoid
perennial weeds such as bindweed ( the curse of any loved garden))
- and carbon-rich material ‘brown’(e.g. straw, loo roll
holders, egg boxes, dead leaves, paper and cardboard
packaging).
To see the range of kitchen composters, bokashi products, and
recycling ideas from Harrod Horticultural, click
here...
 Avoid all meat, fish
and cooked food as well as carnivorous animal waste .The composting
process requires a balanced supply of water, oxygen and organic
matter. Micro-organisms occur naturally in this environment and
generate heat as they break down the organic matter into useable
compost.
Oxygen
is an important part of the equation and the reason why all good
compost benefits from being turned periodically to maintain a
supply of air.
If a
heap is very wet, or organic matter too densely compacted, oxygen
levels quickly disappear which will not only slow down the
composting process but will fail to reach the high temperatures
needed to kill off some weeds, seeds and diseases.
Compost Tumblers can speed up the composting process considerably,
to find out more about the range available from Harrod
Horticultural, click here...
 Our large compost
bays outside are constructed on bare earth which means that worms
and bacteria can easily start work. Worms are essential for
converting the waste into the best natural fertilizer on the
planet…worm cast.
Worms
have been conditioning our planet’s soil for millions of
years, processing plant waste whilst also aerating the
soil.
Again, there are some great products available from Harrod
Horticultural - you can source your worms and a variety of
different wormeries to suit your needs and your budget simply and
easily - click here...
Indeed
Charles Darwin studied worms for many years and concluded that life
on earth would not be possible without them!
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