The best compost I ever made.

[Ricard with an H]

I'm still in my dressing gown so please be patient.

I'm wondering if the pallet I placed over the bag was part responsible for the micro-climate, letting just enough moisture through. The pallet had slipped from perfectly horizontal to sloping which would mean the gaps between the slats would present a smaller aperture to direct from the heavens rain though we mostly get wind-driven rain.

Crumble photos shortly.

[peter]

In my experience dryness prevents composting.
Some years ago having amassed a herd of dalek style compost bins I bought the next step up from Blackwall Plastics. A square five piece item, hinged lid, three sides and a front with the silly little hatch to (theoretically) shovel compost out via. Lid was a solid sheet, the other four were all perforated by slots

Useless!

All it does is dry out whatever you put in it. A small central core kind of composts, but 80% just dries.Shelterd from rain, warmed by the sun on the black plastic and with any breexe sucking the humid air out via slots about 2/3rds the length of a DVD cases short side and the same width as the case.

[Ricard with an H]

Those are now thoughts Peter, and here (A roll of drums please) is what I achieved by not trying any harder than tidying up all the dead stuff at the end of the season. You'll see bits of stalks, they are soft and part rotted. Anything that gets through the rotosieve goes into the garden. You'll see a photo of the comfrey/rhubarb patch, I have already spread four inches of compost over the existing soil that was desperate for topping up. Its the one problem with raised beds, filling them.

[Pa Snip]

Its the one problem with raised beds, filling them.

Not wrong there.
And then just when you think you've cracked it, when you filled them to the top the compost gradually breaks down even further and your raised bed is only 1/2 to 3/4 full again

[Ricard with an H]

We do have some decent soil on our plot but it's all in the wrong places, because this was a working farm there is a lot of buried concrete not to mention it is very stony, might be something to with the fact we live near the bottom of the crater of an ancient volcano. More picks for you.

On a rainy day I did some sewing to modify the ends of the enviromesh tunnels, a lot of work and hardly worth it, my garlic doing nicely and a better photo of the bed I'm filling with the compost growing rhubarb, comfrey and borage.

[Pa Snip]

Richard

Are the hoops made out of water pipe, do you find they work ok. Do they locate into anything.

Glad to see you have decent depth to your raised beds.

[Ricard with an H]

I drilled the timber so I can push 15mm copper tube into the sides leaving about 9 inch sticking out, you need to drill to maybe 2 inches. I used a flat-bit then dribbled wood preserver into the holes. I then fitted sides made out of slate battens with screws so I can clamp the enviromesh down.

Another photo session coming up.

[Ricard with an H]

To clamp the fabric you need a top thinner slate baten, a thicker one fitted to the side so you can drill and screw through it. If you buy some of those market trader clamps first then you can work out the maximum thickness you have to work with. All my raised beds other than the comfrey patch are built with 8 X 2 treated. If you don't clamp the fabric like this you'll be surprised how insects shimmy under, particularly carrot fly.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Great looking compost - I thought you'd buried the dog in one pic. The copper tube is a good idea. I think I've a bit in my hut with the other things which may come in handy sometime. I've been using metal rods pushed into the ground and just slotted the lengths of water pipe over them but haven't many left.

[Westi]

OMG Richard!

Impressed, not only by your wonderful compost but your ingenuous ideas for other bits & bobs to support your gardening! Thanks for posting some pics - great to see & easy to replicate if other's are having difficulty with similar beds etc.

Westi
PS: Puppy's grown!

[Ricard with an H]

Hi PP, copper tube isn't that expensive but it lasts. I tried some steel tube from one of those plastic greenhouses, it's ok but rots after a year. I suppose if you have some it will be useful rather than throwing it away. Steel reinforcing rods will also work but are a sloppy fit inside the alcathene tube.

I bought a 50 roll of the blue plastic, cheapest was Toolstation.

I must add that it's inspiring to be useful to you-lot, I'm on a roll now and wondering what else I can share with you though I am aware that you-lot are very inventive.

Scaffold boards are not a good idea for raised beds unless they are free, even-so, they rot much more quickly that proper treated timber. Also they are much thinner so you'll not have much meat to drill into. What you can do is line the inside with slates so the soil isn't in direct contact.

Westi. Beti is fully grown now though she is only ten months old and still very much a silly puppy. I put her on a diet when she reached 12 kilos, she is now 11.5 kilos. Using a ball thrower twice a day on our paddock means she gets better and more meaningful activity than walking with a human.

[Johnboy]

Hi Richard,
How tall does your comfrey grow and what colour flowers do you get?
JB.

[Ricard with an H]

I rarely get flowers because I cut the comfrey down before the flower shoots go up. I think they are the same as borage though the buds hadn't opened on that rare occasion I allowed them to grow so tall. RHS say in one of my books not to allow flowers.

Mostly I cut the borage at under two foot high though I did have plants threatening to flower that were taller, maybe three foot. A neighbor grows comfrey but never cuts it, they grow easily over four foot with very sturdy trunks.

When I cut comfrey I use all the plants, leaves and stalks, it all rots down in water very quickly. Comfrey also rots down and disappears amongst the soil when used as a mulch though I have wondered if the nutrient might be too strong for some plants. My strawberries turned-up thier leaves and a few plants browned and appeared to die after comfrey mulching.