The weather on Thursday afternoon was delightful – the sort of golden autumn sunlight that illuminates excuses for what they really are. With good days now in short supply, it would have been a shame not to go out into the garden and do something useful.
So I did one of the jobs from my To Do list that was hanging around – emptying two of my compost bins. I needed more compost for the grow dome, and for the raised beds outside where the onions will be going (now more pressing, as I have so many onions!). Not to mention some space in my compost bins so I can carry on composting (what an excellent subject that would be for a new Carry On film).
I poured 2 trugfuls of fresh compost onto the raised bed where the chickpeas had been (the other end is still full of broccoli plants, which the chickens are gradually eating their way through) and 3 into the grow dome (which gives me a thin layer of compost across the whole raised bed – I will gradually top it up as and when I remove crops) and then filled 5 sacks. I’ve left those outside, covered with a tarp to protect them from the weather, until I need them.
Digging out a compost bin is a very meditative experience. Some of the thoughts that sprang to mind were:
- Plastic is ubiquitous in modern life. Even if you try your hardest to avoid putting it on the compost heap, there’s always some there.
- Which is why I try and avoid plastic garden twine now.
- Biodegradable plastic is intended to degrade in landfill – eventually. It will still outlive us all. Compostable plastics are intended to degrade in compost heaps – but from my experience they still take longer than most other things.
- Leaves don’t compost well. I know this, so why (and when?) did I add a layer into my bin?