No manure in Switzerland

[compostpope]

Thanks for the reply Charles.

I’ve been reading through your wonderful website a bit more and I see that on weed-free ground a layer of 6 inches of compost is not necessary. I appreciate your comment about the probable lack of organic matter in my soil – sadly the previous allotment holder was famous not for his use of compost but for his heavy use of artificial fertilisers and herbicides (hence the lack of weeds!).

I will concentrate what compost I have by spreading it on in 3 inch layers on as many beds as it will run to this year, then replenish these beds next year with a layer 1 inch thick whilst I put thicker layer on the beds that received none this time. I hope the thicker layers of compost applied now will mean that I have a soft enough layer for planting in the spring so that I won’t have to resort to any more fork-waggling!

The council here supply shredded and partly-composted organic material for free. It’s coarse, brown, full of short bits of chipped twigs and not at all like the fine, soil-like produce of municipal composting that I used to get back in the uk. It’s meant for adding structure and volume to the compost heap and it makes very good compost very quickly. I don’t think it would be suitable for putting direct onto my vegetable beds as I dont think it will break down enough and I doubt it has much nutrient value as it is. I can get unlimited amounts of this stuff for free, so if anyone has ideas about obtaining greenstuff to put with it in the compost heap I would be interested to hear from them – I’m considering growing green manure crops for adding to the compost heap – is this a good idea? which green manure crop would be best for this?

Thanks once again,

Compostpope