Start making compost now ; from free material

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Here we go. Composting starts.

[00:00:07]There's a lot of green material just about on the a lotment site at the minute.

[00:00:13]So, get out and have a look and gather start gathering some greens and start preparing to get your compost ready for the year. Let's have a look at the compost made last year. Now, as you can see, this is what is left. I've probably got about half left. I have been using it a lot, [clears throat] making compost extracts, which is arguably what it is, the most valuable thing, the most valuable way to use it, should I say.

[00:00:40]Um, I've also been putting in the tunnel and I've repotted on some strawberries and other bits and bobs and I've just been predominantly using this because this is the best compost you can buy.

[00:00:53]And that is because it is rotting down vegetable plant material which has all the nutrients and the minerals that the plants coming up this year can use. Because this is a direct uh decomposition of all that material.

[00:01:12]Potato tops, tomatoes, carrots, tops, beans, just you know everything all mixed into one with added things like comfrey straw, other bits and pieces. So there's so many nutrients available in this for the plants this year. I will just move a little bit and show you.

[00:01:32]It's probably more moving on towards being vermma compost. This as well now because it literally has so many worms in it.

[00:01:41]You see them all here. All the red wrigglers.

[00:01:46]There's just thousands of them.

[00:01:48]So yeah, the red wrigglers absolutely love this stuff. And I'd like to leave it here for as long as I can, you know, because they're basically turning it into vermy compost now.

[00:02:02]There's a lot of them.

[00:02:04]An awful lot.

[00:02:09]But yeah, it's lovely material. Really nice.

[00:02:15]Yeah.

[00:02:17]So, using it sparingly where possible.

[00:02:21]I have just put the tomatoes in the poly tunnel. I'll show you those in a second.

[00:02:26]And I've used you know a good say couple of handfuls in each planting hole because that will hold moisture in the soil this it will hold moisture beautifully. So it will mean that although the soil on the surface in the poly tunnel may look like it's dry down below where it's needed in the root zone there will be plenty of moisture.

[00:02:50]So anyway, let's cover that up and let's get to making this year's compost.

[00:02:57]Now, I've just been out looking around on the tracks and paths um and on empty a lotments which uh still haven't been rented out, but there's bits and pieces kind of coming up everywhere. This is really good stuff like rhubarb. Don't worry about, you know, people say, "Oh, rhubarb leaves are poison." They may well be, but they will break down into beautiful compost docks. There's docks coming up absolutely everywhere.

[00:03:24]So, you know, they're just rampant everywhere. The leaves are arguably as good as comfry, the leaves of docks, because docks like comfrey put out put down deep roots and pull nutrients up.

[00:03:37]So, there's a lot of nutrients and minerals in the leaves of docks. And then of course I've got the ubiquitous comfrey which I've been pruning back the comfrey on the front of my a lotment a little bit where I planted it a few years ago.

[00:03:52]So I've got some nice clumps of comfry coming up. Um when you're cutting comfrey if you want to sustain the resource and want to keep it coming what you're far better doing is cutting out these tops that are just about to flower like that. just take them out and a few other stems but leave some of the plant in place so that it can photosynthesize because within weeks it will replace these shoots and try and get some more flower out. So that's the best way to sort of manage your comfry if you want to keep if you want to keep it going that is if you want to get rid of it then just keep cutting it and eventually it'll die back. So here's my three patches of comfrey. And if I've just taken probably a quarter of this out here at the back and all these bottom leaves you see on the comfry here.

[00:04:46]Yeah. All these lower leaves. As the plant gets bigger and matures, these leaves die off anyway because the the top of the plants crowds out these lower leaves and they just die off and go yellow and wither away. So, you're far better harvesting these whilst they're green, and they will produce some nice uh heat in your compost. You just see these lower leaves now. You see what I mean? See how they're starting to yellow and die back. So, get them used. And next week, I'll cut some more of these tops out here. These are the flowering tops. I'll probably just leave one for the bees cuz the bees love it. And then I'll cut the outside and this will start growing again.

[00:05:28]And this is my new compost bin or the newly remade compost bin on the right hand side. It's the first one I'm filling this year. It's approximately a third full of material which is literally just starting the decomposition process. So if you look down there, it's really quite dark and I would say there's probably heat in there. Yeah, that's it's warm. It's warmer than my hand that Yeah, with guys we're away. We are composting. Lovely.

[00:06:00]So, let's keep the materials going in.

[00:06:03]And it's it's, you know, you can just keep your bin ticking over this time of year, right? Just going out and foraging bits and pieces like this comfry.

[00:06:14]And comfrey, I've maybe already said it breaks down so fast, you know, within days. So, I'll just put that bit. Now, I've got some uh got some browns here.

[00:06:23]Talk about browns for a second. Now guys, this is the browns I'm using. This is all the thatch left over from the green manure which I grew last year. So this is all the thatch that was lying on the surface. Mustard, buckwheat, all kinds of different things.

[00:06:43]This died back and laid over the surface all winter and protected the soil uh like a bit of a cushion, like a bit of a fleece. It was rad off a few weeks ago and just put into this barrerow to just dry off totally. And browns are so important for your compost because without the browns, if you just keep laying greens and greens and greens in, you will get a really hot, wet, sticky, stinking anorobic mess, which is no good for man no. So the browns really help balance out the greens. They stop the greens from slumping down. And the browns are worked on by different types of microbes and fungi.

[00:07:24]Fungi predominantly work on the browns and bacteria work on the browns. But yeah, the key you've got to have fungi in your bin. You've got to it's a vital vitally important uh element in growing vegetables. You got to remember that this this brown or the these mustard stems, they it's absolutely the best material you can put in the bin as a brown. It's better than cardboard, better than anything else. Now, obviously, you're probably not going to have loads of mustard tops like me to break down. I haven't got that many, I assure you. The next best thing you should get is some straw. So, go and buy half a bail or a bail of straw. Just put it in a bin or leave it outside and just sprinkle the straw in as you put some greens in. That's literally all you have to do. Greens and straw. Just think about that. Approximately 50% each. 50% green, 50% straw. If possible, just mix it up a little bit. Get your fork in, turn it, mix it together. Beautiful addition. That's literally all you need to make compost. Just a little bit more of this here.

[00:08:34]And I'll put the rest of the greens on.

[00:08:37]Also, guys, when you're putting layers in, don't make your layers too thick.

[00:08:42]So, you know, don't put a massive big thick pile of greens on and then sprinkle your browns on. It's much better to just put a few greens in and then some brown in. It just layers up better because it kind of mixes itself together then. So, as you drop in some straw here, it falls between the greens and it makes the perfect mixture.

[00:09:04]I should be going out and getting a bail of straw very shortly. But I would say what I've just done there and what you've seen me put in is kind of the perfect way to layer up a compost heap or lasagnize it.

[00:09:18]The idea of these um hot compost bins really is not to turn them. Turn them once, possibly twice as this keep continues to sink and decompose.

[00:09:32]When it stops heating up and it's all slumped down and it's all changed color, that's when it will be turned into the center and possibly that will be the one and only turn.

[00:09:44]But I'll bring you back more on composting this year.

[00:09:48]That's little bits of this comfrey. Now, if you want to put more greens anywhere in a compost bin, put them in the corners because the corners are where the heap is going to be the coldest. So, if you're wanting to kill off any type of weed seeds or plant diseases, put them in the center and put other greens around the side so that they heat up equally as well as the middle does.

[00:10:14]A few mustard tops which I have literally just cut down just to stop these from setting seed again this year.

[00:10:21]I am just going to let the plot clear of mustard this year. So, I've been growing mustard for two years. self-seeded mustard keeps coming up, but this year I'm changing I'm changing it up because I'm growing buckwheat as a cover crop.

[00:10:35]The only other thing I do now is put some covers on this compost because it traps the heat and moisture in.

[00:10:48]And without sufficient moisture, your compost bin, it won't really get hot.

[00:11:03]Got a few logs there drying. Turns out it's a brilliant place to dry firewood.

[00:11:08]Tops of these bins.

[00:11:18]Here we go.

[00:11:20]The grape vine continues to swell and fill these little bunches.

[00:11:28]Yes, it's looking loaded this year with grapes. Going to have a really nice harvest. Now, I know the tomatoes are are only small and I only put them in yesterday and started putting them in the day before up that end, but what I noticed was that the volunteer tomatoes that were just growing in the soil were doing so much better than these my named varieties which were growing in trays and pots. And it's a fact that once plants are in the soil and they can get the roots in, there's so many more nutrients available for them and they can just grow so much better. So yeah, even though they were only small, I cleared the ground again, got rid of all the volunteers, rad it, and just put the tomatoes in. And I'm pretty much guarantee that if I come back in a week and show you these plants, they'll be here. And that's how fast they grow in the soil.

[00:12:26]So already already these are growing. I can see them. They're gaining they're gaining height.

[00:12:34]I'll incidentally I will just show you one that's been in a tray whilst these have been in the soil. There we go. Look at those little fellas there.

[00:12:44]Compared to these just doing just the just overnight in the last two days they really started to come up. Yeah, they grow so quick.

[00:12:56]That compost I just showed you, there's a I dug a hole about yay big, filled it with that compost, scraped some of the soil back, just mixed it up with the soil, put the plant directly on that along with its string with a knot in the end. And when the plants get up here and they need support, that's when I'll get these strings up uh and I can start wrapping the vines around the string. And that's the supports. Oh yeah, I have I have got my eight varieties in.

[00:13:27]I have got two volunteer tomatoes up there which just happen to be the biggest plants. So I thought, my god, they're vigorous plants. So I'm going to grow them and see what they turn into.

[00:13:37]And I've got four spots left at the end of the bed for four more tomato plants.

[00:13:42]And today it's decision decision. Which four extra plants do I grow? I'm pretty sure that one of them is going to be pork chop. The other one is going to be honeycomb. Definitely honeycomb and pork chop.

[00:13:59]A hind 1350 maybe.

[00:14:02]And maybe another honeycomb. [laughter] I'll see. I'll see. The world's your oyster, isn't it? With tomatoes.

[00:14:11]My little sweet corn is doing really well. Two varieties. Swift here and incredible F1 there.

[00:14:20]Um, I have put another tray of save of seed in actually. Now, this is the golden banttom seed that I saved last year.

[00:14:30]I thought germination would have been a bit better than this, but it's sort of it's a little bit sketchy, but they are all actually coming up. You can see another one there just starting to sprout. I just don't understand why some are a little bit slower than others. But in the [clears throat] beginning there was just sort of three plants in this tray coming up. So I sewed load more. I don't think I'm going to need them because it looks like these are all going to grow anyway. These are the golden bans sort of open pollinated plants which I pollinated last year. I'm going to put a nice big block of these in together and try pollinating them again by pollinating the the silk the silks themselves with their own pollen and then covering the cobs with a bag to stop any other pollen contaminating the cob. Be interesting to see how they come out this year.

[00:15:24]I'll bring you back for that when we are pulling cobs and we'll know straight away if the uh golden banttom ran true has run true from the safe seed because those golden banttom cobs were really nice last year they were as good as any of the other cobs probably not quite as sweet as swift but uh certainly as good as the incredible cobs and a tip about this string guys it's a polyropylene string which I use to tie up the tomatoes and melons. Now, I did have two of these strings running each side of the tunnel full length. So, the strings run across the top and these main strings tie to those strings. Well, I've discovered actually that this um polyropylene, if you leave it out in the sunlight, the sunlight totally destroys it. Within about 18 months, it just falls apart. So, this is what happens to the string after about 18 months. Just falls apart. Sun absolutely destroys it.

[00:16:23]the sunlight. So, what I've done this these strings which I've just cut for these tomatoes, I'll be putting those away as soon as the plants come out just to protect the string. Uh, and instead I've had to put wires up. So, I've put some steel wires up now on the roof there. As you can see, that's what the strings will be tied to because towards the end of last year, the tomatoes at the back of the tunnel all started to collapse because the main string they were tied to was snapping, falling apart, and the plants were all falling down. So, I've replaced them with wires this year. I've just got to do this side now. But I'll get that probably get that done today. What I've just done here, it's all it's the big shuffle at the minute. Just trying to fit everything in. Plants that want to go outside but not yet. Plants that want to get planted in here, but not quite yet. So, it's also it and you have to shuffle like this here because if we get a frost, then everything's got to be fleeced over. But what I've just done is I've just dug the front side of this bed here. I know. But um had to be done because originally when I put the tunnel up, the tunnel front was here and that was the extent of the tunnel. It got that extension three bay extension a year later. But I didn't dig this over at all. This ground.

[00:17:43]I literally just cut out the path a little bit through the soil on the sides and started growing. And over the years as I've been growing in the soil when I come to dig holes to put plants in, I've been finding pieces of glass and bricks and bags and all kinds of junk.

[00:17:58]Really annoying. And you use an aotment as a burial ground. But last year where the tomatoes were in along the back there, I dug all that over. It's only a fork deep. FK through it. Got a load of rubbish out. bricks and glass and bits of string and plastic and all kinds of rubbish. But I wasn't able to do this front section because I had all the lettuce in. Well, yeah. So, I've just done up to the lettuce there.

[00:18:25]it over. deep again. Found some bits of glass like this. This is the stuff that just loads of pieces like that. And when you dig in, if you put your hand in, you cut your hands to pieces on it. Bits of plastic. More glass.

[00:18:44]there. Bits of metal, old bolts and nuts. And anyway, got that done because I want to get this side finished now. I'm going to have to cut these lettuce out this week so I can just dig that front bit as well. Yeah, ready to put the melons in. I think I'll just show you the melons cuz they've just done so good. Now, I'm I'm trying this variety this year. These are called Claremont. Never grown them before.

[00:19:09]They're meant to be quite good for us up here in the Northwest. Meant to be quite hardy, fast growing uh melon plants. I don't know. We'll see. They're certainly performing at the moment. Look at the size of those to like the Hell's Jumbo and the Malagas. They're just worlds apart, aren't they? So, you know, these are starting to spin around in the bottom, and I need to get them in the ground. So, I'll probably start planting these tomorrow. But I'll lay the strings on the soil like I've done with the tomatoes. Then if a frost do cometh, I can double treble fleece them over. See what happens. They all get killed by frost. They all get killed by frost sooner rather than the pain of going through all the melons getting some kind of disease this year. I think I'm just a bit far north to grow melons. Yeah, just doing the big shuffle.

[00:19:59]There's plants in here that just can't go out yet for a couple more weeks into until the middle of May, like beans, French beans particularly, things like that. Um, chilies and peppers. I want to get them in the ground this year. I'm just growing around I think I've got about 20 melons to grow. So, I'm only going one deep all along that back side.

[00:20:22]And then all this front section here, I am just going to fill this with chilies and peppers.

[00:20:27]two stands of tomatoes, chilies and peppers, and melons. And that's it for the tunnel this year, guys. But I'll bring you back when I get a bit more planting done. Um, it's been [snorts] a lovely day. Sunshine and cloud. Been a bit of a mixture of both. It's a bit of a nightmare, isn't it, when you're down to your t-shirt, then you're back to your hoodie and t-shirt and hoodie all day cuz as soon as that sun goes on, it is cold. Just a timely reminder that don't uh never cast a clout till May's out. All right, guys. Catch you later.