I have light soil so compaction isn't an issue but getting in plenty of organic material is. I can create vast quantities of grass cuttings as I mow / strim over three quarters of an acre but I never have enough stuff to mix with it so I dump quite a lot in an odd corner under some trees and burn the strimmings. If anybody has a fool proof way of using more of it without creating a slimy mess I would be pleased to hear it. I have six compost bins about 4x4x4' each. I have 7 10x25' veg beds plus separate soft fruit and another 10x20' of Comfrey which I cut for compost several times a year. I don't compost every bed every year, typically it would be :
1 - potatoes, dig and compost in the winter and put a bit more in the planting furrows. 2 - Sweet Peas / Broad Beans / Runner Beans, three deep trenches with plenty of compost. 3 - mainly Peas - dug all over and composted. 4 - Courgettes, Squashes etc. dug and composted all over quite late with fresh compost and first grass mowings. 5 - Greens not dug just weeded, lime and fertiliser to keep firm. 6 - Onions not dug just weeded and fertliser to keep firm. 7 - mainly Salads and Carrots dug with a fork to open up but no compost.
I top dress the fruit beds but would like to use some in the flower garden but there is never enough and with the high mowings content it really is better used buried than on the surface.
I saw a mention of sprout stalks, I cut the roots off and burn them then split the stalks and shred them into the compost.
Practicality of deep beds
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
Hi Geoff,
Try leaving the grass on the ground to dry before putting it in your compost bins...It might not end up like quality hay, but it will be good enough for a compost bin.
If you have to collect it up with your mower, then spread it along your rows of veg to act as a mulch and it will get taken into the gound by worms etc anyway. I generally put mine on and between the potato rows, this raises the pH (reduces scab) adds nitrogen as the grass is broken down, reduces evaporation and adds organic matter without having the effort of compost turning and applying.
Try leaving the grass on the ground to dry before putting it in your compost bins...It might not end up like quality hay, but it will be good enough for a compost bin.
If you have to collect it up with your mower, then spread it along your rows of veg to act as a mulch and it will get taken into the gound by worms etc anyway. I generally put mine on and between the potato rows, this raises the pH (reduces scab) adds nitrogen as the grass is broken down, reduces evaporation and adds organic matter without having the effort of compost turning and applying.
I don't suffer from insanity .... I enjoy it!
Vivianne
Vivianne
Hi Geoff,
Perhaps invest in a paper shredder, then you can recycle junk mail, newspapers and all sorts of things that might normally be put in a landfill. It would make good alternate layers between the grass cuttings and help to prevent the 'slimey mess'.
Perhaps invest in a paper shredder, then you can recycle junk mail, newspapers and all sorts of things that might normally be put in a landfill. It would make good alternate layers between the grass cuttings and help to prevent the 'slimey mess'.
Hi Geoff,
You live in a rural area and should be able to lay your hands on a few bales of straw. I lay this on the ground and use my MTD Mower to chop it up and them spread over the grass pile before the next layer is about to go on. Chopped straw absorbs a fair amount of the moisture out of the grass and also swells the amount of compost you make. I also add a thin layer to my main compost bins as well.
This year I am composting the Leylandii foliage from the trees that I felled last year and instead of Straw I am using this now well browned foliage.
By next yeat it will make a wonderful soil enhancer.
You live in a rural area and should be able to lay your hands on a few bales of straw. I lay this on the ground and use my MTD Mower to chop it up and them spread over the grass pile before the next layer is about to go on. Chopped straw absorbs a fair amount of the moisture out of the grass and also swells the amount of compost you make. I also add a thin layer to my main compost bins as well.
This year I am composting the Leylandii foliage from the trees that I felled last year and instead of Straw I am using this now well browned foliage.
By next yeat it will make a wonderful soil enhancer.
JB.
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peter
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Even more basic, do you have a rotovator?
If so do a mulch as Vivie suggests and rotovate it in periodically.
Hens will enjoy fresh lawn mowings in quantity and will keep stirring it about, if you rotovate half their run every month or so they will go potty for the freshly turned soil.
If so do a mulch as Vivie suggests and rotovate it in periodically.
Hens will enjoy fresh lawn mowings in quantity and will keep stirring it about, if you rotovate half their run every month or so they will go potty for the freshly turned soil.
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
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peter
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When I lived with my parents we kept a dozen Marans at the bottom of the garden, their run was about the size of my current back garden.
When I mowed I usually put some or all of the lawn mowings in the hen run. They attacked it with enjoyment when it was fresh, but subsequently just scratched around in it. I found that the run became very smooth surfaced and in wet weather very slippery, I forget why but I dug, either a small area or a hole,and noticed the top 1/2" was a mix of anything organic we had given the hens and their sh%t.
So I rotovated most of the run to make it safer, they kept clear of the Merry Tiller, but dived in after it went past, loads and loads of worms and the surface took quite a while to go back to its rendered greasy finish. The hens also then created dust baths, which when it rained went back to smooth render.
Before we gave up on hens we ended up with the run split in two as we had inherited a "proper" hen-house, 6' pitched roof, nestbox down each side and front plus back pop-holes, I reckon it once had wheels and it definately originally had a lath floor which I plywooded.
Most of the soil problem was due to being on clay.
Do a small test with the ducks, they might not like it.
As for the rats, thats another story......
When I mowed I usually put some or all of the lawn mowings in the hen run. They attacked it with enjoyment when it was fresh, but subsequently just scratched around in it. I found that the run became very smooth surfaced and in wet weather very slippery, I forget why but I dug, either a small area or a hole,and noticed the top 1/2" was a mix of anything organic we had given the hens and their sh%t.
So I rotovated most of the run to make it safer, they kept clear of the Merry Tiller, but dived in after it went past, loads and loads of worms and the surface took quite a while to go back to its rendered greasy finish. The hens also then created dust baths, which when it rained went back to smooth render.
Before we gave up on hens we ended up with the run split in two as we had inherited a "proper" hen-house, 6' pitched roof, nestbox down each side and front plus back pop-holes, I reckon it once had wheels and it definately originally had a lath floor which I plywooded.
Most of the soil problem was due to being on clay.
Do a small test with the ducks, they might not like it.
As for the rats, thats another story......
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
At the moment the grass in the duck enclosure is growing faster then the ducks can keep it down, so I mow it occassionally and leave the mowings on the ground as they enjoy grubbing though it.
Hopefully with more mowings added the grass underneath will die and the whole lot can be rotavated and used for veg and the ducks moved to a new patch. The only slight problem is the electric fence which will earth if the mowings touch it, so running the battery down quicker.
I was busy this morning adding some more mowings to their enclosure.
Hopefully with more mowings added the grass underneath will die and the whole lot can be rotavated and used for veg and the ducks moved to a new patch. The only slight problem is the electric fence which will earth if the mowings touch it, so running the battery down quicker.
I was busy this morning adding some more mowings to their enclosure.
I don't suffer from insanity .... I enjoy it!
Vivianne
Vivianne
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Geoff
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Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'm not going the livestock route. We used to have hens and Muscovys (Muscovies?) and didn't find them economic and attracted rats so that area is now a big greenhouse and fruit cage.
I'm not going down the mulching route either. I bury all my compost apart from on the soft fruit. I am convinced, possibly unjustifiably, that the people who have most slug trouble are the ones with organic material on the surface. I prefer slightly old fashioned spacings and hoeing and think it reduces them.
Straw is not a cheap commodity up here as none is produced locally. The last trailer load of FYM I had was from a farmer who still cut rushes for bedding and it took a while to breakdown.
I already shred junk mail and other bits and pieces but not our one newspaper a week - that goes to a charity collection or to light the fire. I can get shredded paper from work and I'll resolve to do more of that. What I have already started doing is picking back up the partially rotted dumped mowings whenever I have anything else for the heap and we'll see how that goes - 2 barrowloads yesterday.
I'm not going the livestock route. We used to have hens and Muscovys (Muscovies?) and didn't find them economic and attracted rats so that area is now a big greenhouse and fruit cage.
I'm not going down the mulching route either. I bury all my compost apart from on the soft fruit. I am convinced, possibly unjustifiably, that the people who have most slug trouble are the ones with organic material on the surface. I prefer slightly old fashioned spacings and hoeing and think it reduces them.
Straw is not a cheap commodity up here as none is produced locally. The last trailer load of FYM I had was from a farmer who still cut rushes for bedding and it took a while to breakdown.
I already shred junk mail and other bits and pieces but not our one newspaper a week - that goes to a charity collection or to light the fire. I can get shredded paper from work and I'll resolve to do more of that. What I have already started doing is picking back up the partially rotted dumped mowings whenever I have anything else for the heap and we'll see how that goes - 2 barrowloads yesterday.
Keep at it lads and lasses. I am cheating inasmuch as I bought a batch of Muckers Mulch for my poiytunnel no-dig beds as no way can my composting efforts ever provide anything like enough material and spent all yesterday morning carting 42 bucketfuls down to the beds in all that heat. The result is a meagerly covered area of about 20 x 6ft., a fraction of one tunnel.It still seems to me a scheme which is fine once it is set up but I don't see any newbies going straight into it right from the start. Which us where we came in.
We do have a scheme to supplement supplies in a small way. We get free sawdust at times and supply that to the local RSPCA shelter where it is used for bedding, also dandelion and other organic material. We get it all back as used for composting but also as a bonus get boxes of large eggs so that can't be bad, better than trying to do all the animal side ourselves.
Footnote to Geoff. Our galvanized slug barrier looks totally effective, details elsewhere, see pests, you might like to try it. We have some excellent lettuce with no damage within that barrier
Allan
We do have a scheme to supplement supplies in a small way. We get free sawdust at times and supply that to the local RSPCA shelter where it is used for bedding, also dandelion and other organic material. We get it all back as used for composting but also as a bonus get boxes of large eggs so that can't be bad, better than trying to do all the animal side ourselves.
Footnote to Geoff. Our galvanized slug barrier looks totally effective, details elsewhere, see pests, you might like to try it. We have some excellent lettuce with no damage within that barrier
Allan
A composted blend of horse manure and hedge cuttings. Sells locally here (Monmouth)but as it is a franchised product you may be able to get something similar from a producer local to you e.g Stomy Stratford Leicestershire. I got a bulk delivery at half price for a special reason, not sure what volume it represents but it has kept me very busy shovelling and carting. I meant to keep a record but didn't, something like 100 builders bucketfuls. It is weed-free and quite well broken down so you can plant straight away.
Allan
Allan