Never Enough Compost

There are two things you'll never have enough of, once you become a gardener. It is space to plant and compost. As the sole gardener here at Witch Valley, I have had to rein in thoughts of extending my beds another meter and I never have enough compost.

I could buy it, but that somewhat goes against my self-sustainable beliefs, having to pay for something that I could make myself. So imagine my thrill when I learned that the recycling depot in my area, has a big pile of compost for people in the area to take away for free. Yesterday I went down and collected 3 garbage bags half full and am waiting until I've prepared all of my vegetable beds to spread it on.

This is just a quick fix this year, because I really must start making enough compost of my own. I really don't have an excuse, except not having a compost heap. What I have is a collection of several heaps of woody and green branches that need to be shredded. Now that I have fixed the electric source near my garden, I can start shreddding this spring. For that I have bought a large compost bin to go next to my collection wooden frame. This should make enough compost for my vegetable beds, berry bushes and fruit trees. I found out that no more than a 3mm covering is recommended, every year on your vegetable beds, even less for the weak feeders. But like I said, you can't have enough of the stuff and it is a great mulch over winter if it has not fully composted.

Here you can see my setup by the vegetable and fruit garden. This bin is twice the size of my old bin, but I will keep that up near the house for my kitchen waste and ornamental garden weeds and stalks.

This week I managed to tidy up my potting shed and workshop, but it is still quite crowded until I can get the pots and terrace furniture  and cushions out in Spring.

So now I'll show you the workshop ;-)

View from the potting shed

view from the barn style sliding door

In the first picture you can see my blade trimmer and hedge cutter hanging on the wall. On the bench is my small chainsaw.  In the second you can see my lawnmower and covered in black tarp is my blade shredder. Under the bench my power washer. On the left with the green feed cylinder is my grinder shredder. Both shredders and power washer are electric, everything else oil and gas mix.

I recently bought a gas weed burner for my paths around the house and the parking space. I don't want to use it in the garden at all, just on the paved areas and cobblestones, where my time and effort are wasted pulling them all from hand and them still growing back. I hope to get better results, but will keep you posted.

I managed to prepare two of my vegetable beds, ready for planting this week. Now I just have four more to go. Then just clearing the grass from under the black currents and raspberries, that I want to mulch with shredded bamboo and branches.

My lovely two prepared beds :-)

The weekend we are expecting frost again, so I won't be able to finish the beds until the middle of next week if it's dry enough. I will be planting my tomato, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, celery stalks and early lettuce seeds some time soon. If at the end of March, the worst of the weather has gone, I'll be sowing the first seed in the garden, hurray!!

"The deep roots never doubt spring will come.”

Marty Rubin