The compost heap is the richest and most valuable part of the garden. Home to billions of creatures from larger toads and voles to microscopic bacteria and fungi.
A recent study found household compost bins could contain 478 different species of fungi and that individual bins could each have different ones.
And, of course worms play a pivotal part in breaking down our tattie peelings and banana skins as my one year old granddaughter will tell you. Emptying the compost caddy is an important daily ritual and Nefeli knows that she eats the banana and the worms have the skin. Composting, breaking down all organic material, happens regardless of what we do. But by increasing a bin’s temperature, we speed up the composting process.
Do this in four ways: put the bin in as sunny a place as possible; add a mix of different waste, green and sappy stuff and brown more fibrous material; always keep the waste moist; and keep the material light and relatively airy, don’t cram it down.
The sunniest parts of the garden are precious, so the bin may have to accept some shade. This will stop the new waste at the top getting as hot as it might, but most of a home composter is much cooler.
This suits our compost fungi, which perform best at 25 and worse at 45.
The aerobic bacteria we need in the composter only function in moist conditions: kitchen scraps and weeds on their own are often too wet, letting the anaerobic brigade move in to produce a smelly pile.
Without some moisture, dry stalks remain dry stalks. During hot weather, you might even need to apply the hose or a watering can to an open bin. So try to avoid open tops or side slats which dry out and won’t rot down.
Plant of the week
Narcissus ‘Pipit’
A delightful Jonquil narcissus with beautiful lemon coloured flowers that fade to cream.
This narcissus flowers over a much longer period than many daffodils. It grows to 20-30cm.
Like many members of the Jonquil group of narcissus, ‘Pipit’ is strongly scented. It bears 2 or 3 flowers per stem. Another Jonquil is ‘Quail’ which has golden yellow flowers with long cups.
The name Jonquil comes from the Spanish junquillo, meaning rush. Their leaves, which are much slimmer than those of the large trumpet-like daffodils, are cylindrical and rather rush-like.
This lets them die down more neatly.
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