This topic contains 7 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by charles 5 years, 7 months ago.
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Hi Margaret,
By my calculations if you were to spread a 2″ layer on each bed you will need 65 ltrs per Bed. The depth you put on depends greatly on the current state of the soil, weeds etc.
As for the green manure, some people just chop it down and leave it on the surface but most dig it in. I personally don’t bother with these manures preferring instead to spread compost on the surface. I’m sure Charles will give more comprehensive advice on that for you.
If I could give you one piece of advice. As we are now coming into Winter I would suggest getting Charles’s Vegetable Course Book or his Vegetable Garden Diary. With the inevitable poor weather you will have lots of opportunities to read through these excellent Books. They will really help you to get started on the right path and ensure you are set up and ready for next spring.Don.
Good morning-
I am preparing to order compost for my new no-dig veg garden. The area (currently lawn) is 5m x 9.5m. The online calculators suggest that I need over 3 tonnes of compost! Can this be right?
Many thanks,
Emma
Margaret. I think it is great that you are a complete beginner at 71.
Hi Emma-Jane,
That quantity would give you around a 3″ covering over the entire area. Charles would recommend 4″.
But I suspect the measurements you quote are for the whole area, Beds and Paths. Is that correct? If so you need to calculate the total path area and then see what you need.Thank you, Don. Reducing the amount needed for the paths and adding more depth for the beds, it seems like the figure is pretty much right, amazingly!
Kevin here, from Tasmania. 🙂
Good morning Charles and all the marvellous forum contributors.
Charles: I have a question concerning volume of compost (volume of initial organic matter that is turned into compost).
I notice in your delightful and instructive videos that there you have a dedicated compost area, complete with a roof! Very impressive!I am wondering, please, if I can ask: approximately how many “bins” (separate areas/volumes) do you have, at approximately what volume (assume about 1 to 1.2m [3 1/2 to 4 feet] high? What are your main inputs? (horse manure, cow manure, garden/kitchen waste etc.)
The reason I ask these questions is that, like you (Charles), I live in a rural area, but it is still a huge challenge for me to gather sufficient raw material for me to turn these inputs into decayed/mature organic matter, ready for my vegetable garden.
Information that you can give might help me, and other readers of the forum, understand better some of your inputs into your garden.
TIA.
Kevin.
Nice to hear from you Kevin.
I have no magic answers to finding enough raw materials for compost. To make a lot, you need other peoples’ wastes – coffee grounds, fresh or older manure, paper and cardboard, leaf sweepings, soil, hedge prunings chopped or shredded, and lots more.
My bins are 1.5m2, heaps are 1.7m high at full stage, and filling a bay takes 5-8 weeks. Longer this year because we had a ‘drought’.
In a season I fill 5 or 6 such bins, of the 7 total.
This gives about a third of the compost I need.
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