Tag Archives: compost bin

Gardening

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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?

Compost bin

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About this time last year I was given a compost bin. I’d been swithering about buying one for quite a while. The thing that put me off getting one was the fact that our garden is really quite small. So space is precious and compost bins are big, bulky and ugly.

Anyway, I’ve been following instructions to the letter and adding garden waste and vegetable kitchen waste and after a year I have very little to show for it.

I know that for about three months the whole bin would have been frozen solid, which wouldn’t have helped matters. It seems to be a fantastic way of preserving vegetable scraps with no sign of any compost to come.

Someone did tell me that the problem was that the whole thing was too dry and I needed an accelerator. Apparently I had to add urine to help the composting process along. So I appealed to the blokes of my family and with many complaints about me ‘taking the piss’ they did come up with the goods, but it was all to no avail.

So despite the fact that I didn’t have any problems with rats or ants, I’ve given up on the whole thing and I’ll be glad to get the space back for some nice plants.

One horrible thing about the composter was the millions of teeny wee compost flies that escaped from it every time I lifted the lid to add something to the bin.

I think a big part of the problem was the fact that even in the summer time it was too cold here for any heat to build up within the bin, which would have helped with the whole process.

Luckily the council in this area provides us with brown bins for garden waste, which they turn into compost. They are talking about providing bins for compostable kitchen waste which would be a definite plus as it it such a shame to have to put it all in the ordinary bin which is just taken off to a landfill site.

So my garden is going to lose its compost corner soon, I think I’m just going to have to brave it and start pulling the garbage out bit by bit. Yeeuch!