An introduction to composting at home and on the allotment. Learn how to make compost from the organic household waste e.g., kitchen waste, cardboard and shredded paper as well as from garden   plant material from the garden in the form of prunings, grass clippings, flowers, vegetables  and leaves.

By compost this waste you can  help the environment and enrich your soil in the garden and pots. The site includes a over 20  compost bins ranging from entry level bins (with and without hatches), to more expensive sectional plastic bins, wooden bins, bins suitable for cooked food, wormeries and pallet bins suitable for composting on allotments in banks of three, four or more. For further details of the site go to   http://www.carryoncomposting.com/142941482 

This session will be held on Sunday 8th May  10.30  - 12.00. Coffee and tea  available from 10am. Please email carryoncomposting1@gmail to register. Places are limited book early. There is a small fee of £5 . 

International Compost Awareness Week

1st -7^th May 2022

ICAW started in Canada in 1995 and has now spread around the world. Our local councils and allotment societies  have been supporting ICAW  for many years and will be offering a range of activities to promote composting and reduce waste. 

At Stokes Wood Allotment Compost Demonstration site , 2b Stokes Drive Leicester LE3 9BS  we will be hosting  two events during the week 

  Compost Teas and Liquid feeds

Compost teas and liquid feeds made by  from plants  including garden weeds. can add  microbes and nutrients to your soil at little or no cost to you. 

A demonstration of how to make liquid feeds  by soaking compost  and plants including comfrey, horsetail, nettles,  and perennial weeds. We will also look at aerating the soaking compost to make aerated compost tea. For further details of liquid feed go to http://www.carryoncomposting.com/142941460

 Wednesday 4^th May  10.30  - 12.00. Refreshments available from 10am including breakfast. Please email carryoncomposting1@gmail to register for free. Head the email Liquid feeds  Places are limited book early.

I have been emptying the compost from the maturation  bin (the photo shows the  second container this week)  of over wintered compost from  the community composting site at Stokes Wood Allotments.

When filling a compost bin, which is going to depend on passive aeration it is  recommended that the base layer consists of browns preferably  coarse materials such as sticks, twigs, bark  so as to  allow air to filter into the centre of the heap. This also assists in  drainage.  Others, including me, use vegetable stalks e.g. brassica (crushed), Jerusalem artichoke or some flower stalks, or crumpled cardboard  which will decompose more quickly than wood.

I have avoided twigs and sticks in the bottom of plastic bins, where the compost will be harvested through a hatch, as the wood makes it more difficult to extract the finished compost but have used them in larger  wooden bins where the compost is not to be turned.

This month we had a load of twigs, raspberry canes, and pruning’s for vines so I decided to use them , as they were submitted (up to 12 inches in length) as a base layer in a bin was to be turned regularly knowing that the initial turning would distribute the twigs throughout the bin. The photo shows the first turn with many of the twigs in the upper layers.

The  twigs certainly made it heavier work  turning the compost using a fork and to break up any lumps that were forming but may aid air circulation within the bin.

The Reception bin saga.

The Reception bin on our Community Composting site is accessible to all of the allotment plot holders. It recently  received a load of  wood ash mixed with soil from the bay previously used to burn wooden waste and dry brambles/weeds. In a small community scheme, it is difficult to restrict access to the Reception bin, but open access does create challenges. This example was the result of a ban on bonfires  which resulted in the bay in which the fires were held being emptied and cleaned out. The obvious place way to get rid of the mixture of wood ash and soil was to put it in the composting Reception bin so that it becomes our  problem. Wood ash provides a good source of minerals e.g., calcium, phosphorus  and potash but can when wet result in a sludge in the bin.   I would normally keep it separate and only add it to the bin as a thin layer which could be mixed well with the other contents. It is a pain when mixed with fine soil and tipped all over the contents already in the reception bin. But no good deed goes unpunished the locals avoid smoke in their windows and I end up with a sludge layer in the reception bin.