Sunday, March 4, 2012

Adding compost

I've had 2 compost bins for a quite a while, which have been filled with the usual grass cuttings and kitchen waste. I discovered a couple of years ago that guinea pig waste makes an excellent compost accelerator!

In the past, the fresh compost has gone around the bedding plants as mulch/soil improver, but now it comes into it's own. I've dug out the bottom of both bins - basically everything that looked like compost rather than peelings and guinea pig waste. So now the beds are looking a bit more full. Clearly we're not there yet - time to order some topsoil.

Hampshire Garden Supplies have a very helpful man (called John I think!) who advised me that their 2nd grade topsoil would do the job. Apparently, this has more stones than the better stuff, so is good for drainage - and it's cheaper too! After some quick calculations I reckoned it would take 2x0.7m bags to fill the beds, but then I've already part filled them with compost...

 To be on the safe side I ordered a bag and half, along with a bag of 20mm shingle to make the paths. So on Thursday morning, the truck turned up (at 7:30 so it's done before I have to leave for work!). This is gonna take some work to transfer...













...but with a bit of help from Joel and a beautifully sunny afternoon, the beds are looking ready to plant!






















The only question remaining? What to do with the 3/4 bag of topsoil I've not used?!

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