I spent the afternoon clearing out my compost bin as I couldn’t stand the ugly monster being in my garden any longer, especially since it doesn’t seem to be very good at composting stuff.
It does seem to be fantastic at preserving potato skins though and there were hundreds of teeny potatoes growing from the potato eyes, not what I wanted at all.
I had to pick through the worst of it and put it in the ordinary bin, thank goodness the bin men are coming tomorrow. I think about half of the material which I had added to the compost bin had partially rotted down but there were even leaves which were still complete, and they were thin delicate ones, nothing leathery.
I was able to spread some compost around and the female blackbird was having a great time picking through it all.
This has been a disastrous year for birds in my garden. I was thrilled to bits when I realised that a song thrush was building a nest in a conifer just feet away from my washing line. Sadly they hatched out on what was an absolutely freezing windy day and I only discovered that they had hatched because I hadn’t seen the thrush coming and going. So, I don’t know what happened. Maybe a cat got the parents or they just died from the cold.
A few days ago I found a tiny gold finch which had drowned in the old jelly pan which the birds use as a bath. There is a big stone in the middle of it for them to perch on but obviously the baby bird wasn’t strong enough to get itself onto it.
My Californian Lilac perished in our very long winter and a few smaller plants too but a lot of the plants which were looking very sorry for themselves earlier, have recovered really well. They have enjoyed the sun recently and it’s all beginning to look quite lush.
I am a wee bit worried about the bee situation because there don’t seem to be nearly so many about now. I have lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants and in past years my place has been the bee equivalent to a local pub. Often they sounded very boozy and drunk but I don’t suppose they suffer from hangovers!
I’m hoping that the bee numbers will increase throughout the summer. I’m going out to the garden now to scatter a few slug pellets around. I don’t like doing that but the compost bin was a very successful nursery for slugs and I know if I don’t do something I will have no hostas left by the morning.
One great thing about living in Scotland is the very light nights which we have. You can still garden after 10.00 pm easily.
How can I get rid of that compost bin?
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