great compost ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V39Pkw2vJA

if you follow the link, its ideas for extending what compost you have... during 'lockdown' , the garden centers are closed and nobody can find any compost. I've got less than a bucket full..... my garden compost is nowhere near ready and my garden soil is very depleted. I do have access to tons of horse poop but transportation is slow.. a couple of bucket-fulls at a time in the car and I've been under the weather and tired out from work to even start....

flowers in the garden

 Cyclamen, looks a bit lonely, I think there is a bigger clump elsewhere in the garden, but I forgot to look for it.

Leucojum, they are usually quite tall. so I'm not sure why these are so little.

Hellebore, not opened

Hellebore, again not opened.
I tagged this with spring and winter flowers, as it seems like spring , but winter is surely not over yet. As I've had more time this week I've been collecting a bag of the well rotted manure from the farm every day and I tip it into my compost bins. One bin was mostly filled with weeds, the other mostly with grass clippings and then autumn leaves. I eat a lot of fruit and veg so any peelings, skins, cores etc... all go in as well. I have three bins and a fourth one is dismantled , in future I'm going to place the empty bin right on top of a veggy bed.. so once its 'cooked' I can just lift it and spread the compost.. currently when I have to empty the bins.. not likely till the end of this summer... I'll have to get them tipped over and mostly onto a tarpaulin and then move it to where its needed. More thought.. less lifting.

Winter Worms! A red wiggler bonanza under the snow...

Worm Bin ~ The Banana Trick

Compost MOVES!

leaves, a lot

I've had a couple of leaf collecting sessions, not to tidy up but to add them to the compost and to feel they aren't being wasted. The tree has hardly any left now, I will try to remember to take a couple of photos with the little camera.
I sometimes feel I have no inspiration/imagination left, which is sad as I used to love to take photo's and post them on here. The lack of a decent camera does not help , though its said a good workman does not blame his tools? I just don't think you get as good a photograph with the little compact and there are no funds for better.
There have been fireworks nearly every night for two weeks now, last night they were still going off near midnight and tonight they have started from half five, Casper is hiding in the desk cupboard again.

many miles to go

the lovely Quince with her rosette for taking part in ''September Miles'', about once a year friends get together ''online'' , we log our riding miles for the month and then we have rosettes for it. I think last year we did a whole years worth, and one of the other ladies got the rosettes for us.
I had a nice afternoon collecting leaves in the garden yesterday, not that I would ever be able to clear them all up, they fall faster than you could rake... I got a good amount and added them into the compost, it won't be just leaf mould as its a mixed bin for now.  Today was so windy a lot of the leaves have blown off the tree and even the ones on the ground have blown away , so I was glad I made the effort to do something yesterday.
Also yesterday, I took Quince out just a short walk, riding, as she's had more than a week off recovering from a couple of swollen legs from a kicking match in the field, horses will be horses...... she had a Photonic Redlight treatment, which is an amazing thing , she's had a couple of treatments over the last two years, how it works I don't know, but it does.

growing away out of sight

lots of mushrooms growing on the muck heap at the farm... no idea what kind they are, and they're quite big.. about six inches tall some of them.

winter tidying

I've started to move the pots off my doorstep and put them in Billy's coldframes to keep them through the winter, if it gets really bad I can out their covers on for extra protection.

my leeks are doing good and there have been some nice pots of soup already, thanks Wildside for the seeds!!

a little rose doing its best in the sun, its blown away now...

a collection of autumn multi-coloured leaves, its a never ending thing... I used to keep them separate to compost but am too busy just now so have stuffed them in with everything else.

work goes on

I have been tidying and digging over. I am adding 'rock dust', which I was delighted to find being stocked by my local Garden Centre. It is produced by the Seer Centre, and I often wish I could get oranigsed enough to visit them. There is a good article on them by SEPA. I also added some to the top of my compost bins.

Research has shown the following benefits of adding Rockdust™ to soil:
Provides slow, natural release of elements and trace minerals
Increases the nutrient intake of plants
Boosts and regenerates soil
Increases mineral rich organic crop yields
Increases the growth of micro organisms and earthworm activity
Increases the storage capacity of the soil
Enhances flavour in crops
Decreases dependence on fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

everything starts to look tidy and tucked up for winter. I have also been sorting out pots, you can see them stored against the fence, unfortunatley I have lost lables or labels have faded or I asume I will remember whats in the pink pot or the green one... thats why most of them now have lables like this. . . .
ha.

autumn garden

not much colour anywhere and its forecast to be frosty tonight again, its not been such a good year for flowers, too wet!
my compost bins are full(again) so as I clear the vegetable beds I am adding it to this pile under a black cover, this is the newest bed so is the one which can use the most 'matter. it should hopefully all degrade enough to be dug in come spring, and I will add a good amount of horse poo to it as well.

falling standards?

I usually sieve my compost and then apply it to a recently weeded bed, but trying to fit everything in round the weather is taking its toll. Today I layered the compost complete with lumps and bits straight onto the garden, weeds included. Then I realised what's missing. . .a team of gardeners and a row of cottages at the bottom of the garden for them to live in. . .

the veg beds are being cleared as things finish, showing bare soil again. my recently emptied compost bin was filled to the top again with 'clearance' items.
and one small pumkin, yipee!! its raised off the ground to try and protect it, hopefully it will begin ripening before it gets too cold.

Sunday in the garden

I spent all day Sunday in the garden. I finished sieving one compost bin, which I had been rained off doing last weekend and then I used a surprising amount of it up immediatley just for replanting and a few bits to scatter inbetween plants. The first lettuce patch was taken up, distributed amongst neighbors and replanted with brussels sprouts plants. The carrot patch is very poor, mostly due to it being one of Tansys best place to sleep, everything was squashed and the ground compacted so seedling cant come up. I have planted some celeriac in one bare corner and will leave the rest to their fate of grow or be squashed. Various things in pots were found homes,and many weeds found themselves without one. The tomatoes were given another haircut, I also cut off a few flowering stalks as this is meant to give them more energy to put into the tomtoes they already have.
this poppy has self seeded just beside the bean wigwam, there is one in the onions too, not something to be weeded out.
this lily is flowering really well, it started off a couple of years ago as a bit of side-shoot.
and the clematis is smothering the shrub its meant to be growing through, I'll cut it right back when it stops flowering.

anticipation

does the saying 'a watched pot never boils' translate into a watched bud never flowers' ? the oriental hellebores are starting to bud, this one opens to a small pink flower
this one has larger pink flowers with dark markings
this one has dark purple flowers with bright yellow stamens
this lovely crumbly compost is from the back of the manure pile at the farm, I anticipate it will grow marvellous weeeds in amongst the vegetables.

the compost pile

I have two of these green bins for compost, this is the pile after lifting it off. sometimes I just use it as is, bits and all, they decompose eventually.
but today it was shoogled through this garden sieve to take out the large bits which were put back in the bin
second barrow full
marvellous stuff. one thing the camera hasn't caught, even in close up, is the movement of all the beasties, ants, beetles, earwigs, centipedes, millipedes, worms, unidentified 'things' and creepy crawlies. it truly was 'alive' and some of those have come back into the house with me and are now running about the bath, having failed to drown!!
underneath the protective fleece, Tansy!
and this is marvellous stuff to find, hedgehog poo!