Sunday, February 06, 2005

Compost Building

This afternoon, instead of planting my purchases of the morning, I went over to my neighbours, R & M, to have a look at their new mulcher. They were mulching up hydrangea and magnolia prunings. In a matter of minutes they had two barrow loads full lovely fine material. M took me to have a look at her compost heaps as she was worried that they weren't heating up enough, possibly because they were too small. I helped her restack all of the material, including the new shreddings into two heaps and inserted black plastic drainage pipe down the centre to assist with moisture and air distribution. They should start to heat up nicely in the next 24 hours. I love layering compost heaps and thinking of the amazing process which will turn it into wonderful plant food and soil conditioner.

M gave me some cuttings of a pure white geranium, a delightful spotted-leaf begonia, and a purple-leafed canna. I'm much more interested in plant foliage now than flowers. Leaves you have all year; flowers for such a short time. The burgundy arctotis cuttings I gave M last week are doing well and should cover the area required very quickly.

It's nearly dark so I'd better go and put our mulcher away and empty my barrows into our compost heap.

Forecast to be 32 tomorrow and 34 on Tuesday. Thankfully, low 20s for the rest of the week.

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