Its all about compost

So the last few days have been dominated by compost. How to make it , where to get it, how to store it, what to make the storage from, and so on.

After a bit of thought Jim said that pallets would be the best sort of wood to use to make a bin of some sort, in which to store compost. An appeal was duly launched on Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/ for unwanted pallets. A very helpful lady said that Travis Perkins gave theirs away so I made a quick phone call to the local branch. They were very helpful and said normally they would be very happy to give away pallets but had given there entire stock to the local Round Table for a bonfire. I was not surprised as we had attended the rather good bonfire and firework display last Saturday and the number of pallets on the fire had been cause for discussion. 

Another member said that they had 5 pallets that we were welcome to take, and so arrangements were made. The new trailer was off for its first outing, we did a bit of multi-tasking and went to the local tip on the way to deposit some garden waste ( Not suitable for the current project) and then onwards for the pallets. They were perfect for the job so after a bit of heaving, they were loaded and strapped and on the way home. 

Yesterday Jim got out his tools and started the job, I was inside but could here all sorts of banging and sawing going on. I wandered out to offer Coffee and saw he had done a great job. It was only part done as we needed to carry it the length of the garden and put it in place before he finished it.  

Now we had the component parts for a bin, we needed some manure. Freecyle again and in about 10  minutes we had more offers of horse manure than we knew what to do with. Living in the New Forest, poo is not in short supply, its just a matter of collecting it. Again an arrangement was made and this morning the trailer was hitched up and off we went. A short drive away we met Steve  and his Shetland pony Ellie and her companion a beautiful 1 year old Arabian horse whose name we never got. 15 minutes with the shovels and the trailer was loaded with some very well rotted manure. Homeward bound.

So this afternoon, the trailer was hauled through the garage into the back garden and the part built bin carried to the end. I decided to put it in the same place I had originally put my plastic composting bin. 

Tools were located and the banging and hammering resumed. As I was not required at this stage of construction, I had other things to keep myself occupied. Earlier this week as predicted another white van arrived outside with the missing plastic compost bin. I cleared a space next to the original and set up the new one. I must admit, I was less careful this time, I decided a spirit level is not really required to garden! It was soon in place alongside the other one.

Meanwhile across the garden the pallet masterpiece was finished. 

All I had to do no was move the extremely heavy manure from one end of the garden to the other, I managed two bags on my own but after much huffing and puffing, Jim joined in and we quickly relocated the other three bags. Another 10 minutes with the shovel and the manure was relocated to its new home, that's it until next year when it gets dug into the garden. All that effort and it was only about a foot deep.

Oh well another visit to see Ellie and her friend is on the cards for later in the week!.