Kitchen Garden Forum

A quick tip to speed up your leafmould - either put the new leaves on top of any left over from the previous year or add a bucket full of some leafmould you have left over. I've noticed that when I started a new lot in an empty darlek compost bin it took ages, but last year I used the same bin in the same place on top of the leftovers from some that took two or three years to break down and it has made decent crumbly leafmould this year.
I'm guessing that the organisms that break down the leaves have taken time to establish and build up sufficient numbers to speed up the process.

I think the same applies to compost heaps. The three adjacent heaps I constructed a few years ago make good compost much faster now than when I had just made them.

We have two heaps...and just before leafing season we completely empty one in to the other...leaving one clear for re filling. This then puts previous years accumulation of leaf mould on top of last years collection.
For mixing in with soil based composts we put the leaf mould through a 3/8" x 18" beechwood riddle.

All a bit crude, wooden post and ex tennis court interlock mesh fence wire and in need of some tlc soon. but it works.

Clive.

Well there's not always the need to chuck vast sums of money at things, to achieve much the same result.....Composting, being one of them.

That looks great compost. Do you cover the top over with anything?

MW

The photo is of ready to use leaf mould and we generally don't cover it at the stage shown.

As the new stock of collected leaves fill the adjacent bin we do sometimes cover that with some old matting...as much as anything to prevent the top leaves making a run for it back into the Garden, propelled by a NE wind.

Clive.

Morning Clive, i do like your last sentence, and how true that is, as well.

How nice it is to actually be able to do some winter digging this year. Really enjoying it
There's something about freshly dug earth that is very pleasing to the eye

One of my plot neighbours was sorting out and re-planting his Marshmello strawberry plants last week. I asked him what was happening to all the spare plants, and he said they were going on the dump

Needless to say, I now have 24 nice strong plants on the plot and 5 in the polytunnel

Sounds as if you are enjoying it again , PJ. Must be nice to be back on the plot again.

Had another Milton Bryan styled, wisdom tooth extraction at the weekend, and it has left my jaw a lot more tender this time. It did put up more of a fight than the other one though. Funny, same problem, it had split a little at the back, and killed half the root. Just one left now, as the fourth one has never come through.

I have been blessed by having no wisdom teeth OH! Dealing with the rest of the blighters at the dentist is scary enough!

Westi

Dear Westi, that is why i like to extract my own, and a lot cheaper too...

Commiserations, OH. I hope your mouth is much better soon. I can sympathise, because I had a biopsy on my tongue and inside cheek nearly three weeks ago and for more than a week I could only slurp soft food and even that hurt. Back to normal now, though I still have not had the biopsy result.

OH, is it time to start an "early winter bits and bobs" thread?

I've still got the root of one wisdom tooth in place. The dentist broke it off and couldn't get it out. After about an hour, I told him that I'd had enough, and he said he had as well
He said what about the other one. I said forget it, I'll keep it.

Evening PJ, when i come down to Broadstairs, next Summer, i can always bring my pliers. I'm sure now i have had a little practise, i could extract one in well under an hour.

Dear Monika, looking at the weather we are forecast, i think a Winter Bits and Bobs, would be quite appropriate. Would you like to start it?
Fingers crossed for your biopsy, Monika.

Evening OH. I think a pair of those long nosed pliers should do the job a treat. I shall look forward to it