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Compost Week

by Bryan Smith

When starting off an allotment as I have done, I suppose the first thought should really be getting the soil right.

We tend to expect a great deal from the ground without giving it the support it needs to feed the different plants we throw at it. I expect we also think that there is high cost to composting and that together with the cost of seeds, protection for plants etc. it outweighs the value of growing your own.

Not so; if we get the preparation right I am positive that other things will follow. Plants will be stronger to resist attack by pests, a higher more succulent yield from the plants can be expected, and the soil also benefits from becoming 'sour'.

There is also the valuable point concerning recycling materials such as paper and vegetable peelings, which would otherwise end up in the bin. Of course, composting is not the answer for everything, but it does ensure a good head start.

There are a number of books to help in deciding what is the best compost mix for your soil. For myself, I will be using various soil improvers, including 'home-made' compost, horse manure, chicken manure and a fertiliser comprised of comfrey and nettle leaves. These will all be on trial over the next year.

The horse manure has not been difficult to obtain - I have even managed to get some free! If it is very fresh, it generally needs some standing time before use, but with some planning, a reasonable amount can be built up before it is needed.

Some vegetable need good amounts of manure and some should not be planted on a freshly manured ground. I will be doing some research to find out which applies to which vegetables.

The chicken manure I use is organic and comes in the form of granules. It is not overly expensive and I use this to dig in to the surface of the soil about a week before planting. This helps to supplement the horse manure already applied during the winter months.

The third, and probably the most important improver, is the home-made compost. I have been fortunate to obtain enough of this from material gathered from both my own and my daughter's gardens, to cover the whole allotment. It has been used to dig into the soil and also as a surface mulch.

Firstly, I have a small compost bin which is mainly used for leaves, as they take longer to rot down.

Secondly, I have a large compost heap. While it is probably a good idea to build 2 compost containers, so you can move the heap from one to the other, I haven't done this. Instead I have a single large heap which I turn periodically.

The heap seems to grow very fast and i try to layer it using grass cuttings, shredded paper, most of the cuttings and waste from my garden, and all of the leftover vegetable products from the house. I do not use any accelerants to encourage decomposition; it is all very natural.

Over a period of 3 months a sizeable workable heap of compost can be made, but my aim is to leave it as long as possible to enable a good crumbly compost to form. I hope to have enough compost by the end of October to cover the whole allotment.

This sort of compost is also an excellent mulch to put around plants, which helps to keep weeds down and retain moisture.

My final improver is a home-made fertiliser containing comfrey and nettle leaves. I picked this tip up from fellow allotment holders and by all accounts it is a pretty formidable fertiliser, with the bonus of being perfectly natural.

You can read about a number of ways to prepare this concoction. My method is as follows:

I have half-buried 2 dustbins in the ground, and filled them with rain water from the ditches surrounding my allotment. I then gathered some young nettle and comfrey leaves. The comfrey was initially given to me by a the holder of a neighbouring allotment, and I now grow it on mine. I have mixed the 2 types of leaves into the water, and it is best left for about 3 weeks to form a good mix of fertiliser.

It will then be used during the growing season to boost the plants, particularly when they are beginning to fruit.

I'm using this year to test out the various improvers to see which suit my allotment best, using trial and error (and old-fashioned guess-work!)

As we are to grow organically, we will obviously need to ensure that our compost contains completely natural materials. Obtaining natural products can be difficult at times, but with a little research it can be done.

If you have any ideas on composting please email them to newtime@livingethically.co.uk so that others can benefit from them.

Good composting. It can be fun!