Rich soil for rich produce | Photos by the writer
A suitable location for compost heaps/bins seems to be a problem for some of you, especially so for those with quite small gardens.
There is, however, a useful way of making compost without building a traditional large heap or struggling to find place for a large compost bin.
Compost can be made, very successfully I must add, here and there, in elongated mounds of whatever height and width you are comfortable with, in the garden itself. I use such mounds as divisions between garden beds, breaking them open after about six to nine months, spreading the ‘made’ compost on the adjoining beds and relaying anything that hasn’t fully rotted down as the base of a new mound.
Such mounds are best started off with a twiggy base and are then built up, over a period of time, with whatever compost material is to hand. Once a mound is judged wide enough and high enough, it is covered over with a thin layer of soil and left to get on with composting itself down. Inevitably, it soon grows a covering of lovely green grass and assorted weeds which, with overall garden tidiness in mind, can be clipped right back — the clippings being added to an under-construction mound elsewhere in the garden — so that all is neat, tidy and verdant green.
Compost heaps/mounds shrink down significantly during their first three to four weeks from starting them off. You can then add to them again, with mounds, before topping them off with soil.
Happy gardening and Happy New Year.
Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.
Published in Dawn, EOS, December 29th, 2019