Composting in Hullavington

Early in 2004 I applied to be a Compost Ambassador, and was trained by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. I’ve been interested in compost since 1971 and have had a compost heap in each of the eight places where I have lived since then. I’m naturally lazy, so a compost heap seems a good way of disposing of grass cuttings and vegetable waste which can then be added to the soil.

Of course, there is another side to composting. We all pay for the use of landfill sites one way or the other, so there is huge logic to positive recycling at home.

A Free Lunch for your Garden!

Why Compost? Compost is nature’s way of recycling. There is a cost to us all in throwing away more and more, and a limit to the amount of our environment we want to destroy by covering it with landfill sites. Composting also helps to save our peat bogs, (home to rare and endangered wildlife) by avoiding commercial peat-based composts.

What’s in composting for you?

If you already make and use compost you will know how simple it is to make, and all the benefits you gain, especially on our free-draining soil. Compost retains moisture and restores freely available nutrients to the soil. Look out for offering huge discounts on ready –made compost bins, although improvised ones work just as well.

More than half of everything we throw away can be composted.

In the spring you can become a green gardener. When you use home-made compost as a soil improver it needs to be mixed with soil. Or you can use it as a mulch. When mixed to make a potting compost it can be used as a peat substitute, to avoid depleting peat bogs, which take thousands of years to form. Apparently, 90% of our British peat–bogs are already destroyed, and now Europe’s peat is being plundered. I guess most of us will find it difficult to avoid peat-based composts completely, but I’m planning to get started now.

When we get to the grass-cutting season keep the clippings where they can be useful. In your compost heap. We don’t want more land-fill sites!

The problem with composting grass cuttings is that you need to mix them with drier material so that they don’t turn into a soggy mess. Why not try collecting all those bits of cardboard, egg boxes, loo roll middles, paper shreddings and junk mail to alternate layers of grass with dry materials, and generate healthy compost to feed the garden?

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE PLASTIC DUSTBIN?

If you’re not already converted to composting, why not cut a few holes in the bottom of your old dustbin to let the worms in and out? A few rough circles about 2 inches in diameter should do the trick! Stand your new compost bin on soil or grass, bung in a mixture of moist plant material and dry fibrous material or crunched cardboard, and stand back and let nature get on with the work of making compost for you. (My prototype works brilliantly. Worms love it!)

Birds, bats and other wildlife.

Robins love me when I spread my fresh compost over the soil. There are always plenty of startled worms trying to wriggle out of the light. They have been doing their bit to break down the vegetation in the bin and now they will get to work mixing and aerating the soil in the garden.

In summer, little fruit flies hover in the warm air over the heap and attract bats to our garden as well as insect-loving birds, which can while away their idle moments by stripping aphids from our treasured plants.

How to get in touch with your compost ambassador. If you have never composted before, contact me for a free leaflet, or advice to get you started. Ring 837358, email maggie.dyson@btinternet.com , or call in at the ‘Compost Embassy,’ @ 67 The Street. (opposite The Star) with any composting queries.

Remember, you don't have to work at composting

It happens naturally.

The secret of compost?

Get started. Every little bit of vegetation composted makes a difference. It ’s not just muck and magic, it ’s many a mickle makes a muckle.

Please do keep asking composting questions. I have amassed quite a repertoire of composting literature, so as I don’t know all the answers I can look them up.

Do send photos of your bins to the village website. It would be lovely to see what others are doing.

These worms have enjoyed living in my ‘old dustbin’ compost heap. They like to congregate in the space round the lid. Here they are happily chomping up old leaves and the odd windfall Bramley.

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Healthy worms performing a Mavis Dance in my compost bin.

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