Pressure has been building up over the weeks. The new lottie area has been taking up my time and the new greenhouse is bring on the seedlings. Soon they will need to be planted out and if I do not do some digging there will be no where for stuff to go. Saturday dawn bright but really cold. Whilst having breakfast it went dark and a shower blew across the garden. I had to collect the muck trailer as it was my turn. I collected the trailer and left it at the lottie. I chickened out and went and did some errands with H instead of getting stuck in. After lunch the weather looked like the showers were going to peeter out. I wrapped up and went to the lottie. I had the place to myself which is always a treat. I set about bed C which is to grow Peas, Beans and other greedy plants such as pumpkins. It needs a lot of manure but it also needs digging over and weeding. I dug half the plot over in about two hours or so. Despite the biting wind I worked up a sweat. Then just barrow twelve barrows of manure to drop on the freshly dug soil. I felt a spot of rain on my neck and before I could get to the car it was belting down rain mixed in with hail. The shower past in a few minutes. Finally I emptied the trailer into the now depleted manure bin and took in back to its home but not before I picked a few Leeks and a handful or two of Purple Sprouting Broccoli for Angie and Chris as a thanks for the muck supply.
Sunday dawned blue sky and wind free. The clocks went forward overnight so I lost an hour. H had her usual breakfast I made myself scrambled egg, some cubed black pudding and a thick slice of local dry cured bacon along with big mug of hot tea, fantastic. Then to the lottie. I continued the Pea bed digging but I got bored after an hour. After all there is only so much weeding one bloke can take. I went to the other end of the plot and cleaned up the Gladioli bed. Yes more weeding but the bed is only 3 by 2 foot so it was a quick fix and being at the front of the plot it made an impact. I pulled out the last of the sprouts and gave them to Steve later in the day. His chickens will enjoy them. I dug over the area and weeded it. It only took twenty minutes.
One of the problems of composting is when to harvest it. I decided today was the day. I have four compost bins which I have been filling for a year. It has been bothering me when I should empty them, where would I put the compost and how much compost would they yield. I pushed over the first bin. The top foot of the bin was dried out weeds but further down it was crumbly, black, sweet smelling compost. Compost aficionados describe good compost as being like chocolate cake. I riddled out the weeds in the top layers but the further down the compost was clean, chocolaty in fact. The first bin gave me eight barrow load which I dropped on the area that had had the sprouts. I spread it out and lightly worked it in. There were plenty of worms in it so they will get busy. The compost lifted the soil level an gave it a great texture. The next bin yielded even most compost. I barrowed that bins worth on to the Pea bed. I still had two bins to go so dug over an are in bed A which will have the beets. The next two bins were just as good as the second bin. In no time the bins were empty I cleaned up the paving. The patio area looks massive now the bins are cleared away. I dressed the Gladioli and Rhubarb beds with the fresh compost as well. I had a brew and admired my handywork. Then I put the square compost bin back together and placed it at the back, against the fence.
H came down with my lunch and stayed for a while just reading her book. I did not mind at all. It was a lovely day, hot sun but a fairly cool air temperature and a gentle zephyrs. We had a chat about where the new bench was going to be sited and then she was off.
The compost really feels like giving back. Weeds and waste turned into twenty odd barrow loads good soil conditioner. It is also the payoff for a long plan. I firmly believed that putting the dock and other weeds in the black plastic compost bin would cook and kill the weeds within a season. It worked! It is important to realise that I do not put any weeds that are seeding into the bins They are usually youngs and leafy specimens. I chuck in the few spadefuls of horse muck when the fancy takes me. There was no sign of the roots in the compost. The weeds had been converted during the year. The clean leafy vegetable matter and household waste goes into the big bin as well as in the wormery, weeds in the black bins. I actually ran out of things to do and the sun was still high in the sky. When I looked at the clock it was half four. With a good days work under my belt I went home for a shower and a cold beer. Not only had I spent the whole day on the lottie I was able to do just what I fancied andwas like some kind of therapy. I did not think about anything but forks and spades, horse muck and digging, weeds, seeds and listening to the birds, bliss.
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