This topic contains 29 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by compostpope 9 years, 1 month ago.
-
Posts
-
Peat
Charles’ ‘no dig’ method was so great for our parsnips last year that you can only get the huge roots out of the ground by loosenign the soil with a fork!! They simply don’t come out of the wet ground in February or early March just by pulling…….
John
I started some new compost bins from scratch last spring to up the amounts produced annually to a level capable of replenishing a 50sqm growing area.
By using a mixture of cardboard picked up for free at garden centre skips, newpapers we buy daily, kitchen vegetable waste, grass cuttings and comfrey leaves from plants we planted out the previous summer, we generated about 0.5 cubic metres of material pretty well rotted which then went into green plastic bins over winter to be ready for this year. It was, it has to be said, a warm summer last year which may have accelerated the overall process.
The green manure experiment I’m going to try this year is growing beans up through a cover crop of clover, which has been done successfully in the past by very good market gardeners in Henley-on-Thames…….
When you harvest potatoes and parsnip you are only loosening the soil not turning it over as you would when digging in a green manure. Using no dig I have never had to dig my spuds out. The potatoes are laid on compost and then mulched throughout the season as needed.
John
My location is East Yorkshire and if anyone is ever in the area they are very welcome to visit to chew the fat or swap ideas.
Pete
Hi John,
The chippings will take nitrogen from the soil ONLY if you dig them in.
Use them as a mulch. I never add them to the compost bin as they will rob nitrogen and slow the general decomposition process by so doing. In saying that I have enough twiggy material in my heap from other additions.
BTW. I looked through your Photo Albums and I must say the way you have transformed that site is amazing.Don.
Pete (Budd), where abouts in East Yorkshire are your alloments? I’m in York and a summer hook up could be great, it being interesting to see your plots ‘in action’, so to speak.
Hi Stringfellow, my plot is on Market Weighton bypass. Can we message on here, if not facebook?
Pete
Hi Pete, that’s about thirty minutes away so would work fine. Charles, would you be so kind as to forward my email to Pete or visa versa? I’m not on FB.
Has this become a dating site!!!
Don
Hi all,
Enjoying the thread….
I have used vetch last two winters after squash/courgettes are out. I follow these with brassicas, so the vetch can have all the spring to thrive – it grows very fast in the heat of April/early May. Cut at the base it doesn’t come back and then I leave on the soil for a few weeks and then clear the dried stems before planting out my brassicas. Seems to work well as it fills a hole with a nitrogen fixer, and I don’t need any extra ground.
Thanks
Hi All
On the subject of generating enough compost (and not on green manures)…
If there is a brewery nearby, you might like to try using spent brewery grains and add them to woodchips to make a compost heap.
I’ve not tried it myself, but came across it on youtube on the one yard revolution channel, the title of their video is “spent brewery grains: a new free resource for our compost”
(I’m not sure I’ve mastered the technology with the link here!)
They were facing the same problem of not having enough compost to hand. Video was published in 2013, they should be able to give some info as to how good the finished product was by now ..
It would be great to hear if anybody else has tried this.
CP
Whoops! – apparently not
might, or might not, get you to the right video -you will have to cut and paste it, I’ve tried my best!
CP
I was’nt expecting a video there – it’s not the relevant one either!!
Might still be of interest though
I have given up trying to give post the link, good luck in finding it yourselves!!!
CP
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.