Compost heap success

I had started the work the previous week! Now it was time to finish it. I really wanted to give my compost heap two compartments. One to throw fresh plant material in, and the other one to let older material mature. And when it's mature, you use it, and then the other compartment becomes the maturing one. And I had ready what I needed do achieve this.

The previous week I had emptied the space out. This time I wanted to screw half a pallet into position. I first drilled a hole in the slate wall and fixed a bracket; I then fixed another bracket into the stairs.

My thoughts then was to create a third contact point. There was another rock I could sink a bracket into! But some drilling action didn't make much progress. I then realised that particular rock was way too hard. Most rock in my garden is slate! But not all of it is… I left it at two points of contact. If that turns out to be too few I can add some woodwork and add another bracket at the top.

I also had to move all that mature compost I had dug out. I decided it was best to put it to use. Most of it was readily absorbed by my vegetable bed, which this year is already hosting potatoes and onions, with celeriac and beetroot still to come. And the rest was used for my tomato plants. Two of them had to move outside in bigger pots. These big pots took the rest! So now I have to start from scratch with creating new compost. But it is May, and everything and anything is growing like the clappers in the garden, and I will have a sizeable heap of organic material there in no time.

This is a project that all together has taken me five years. But better late than never! Bring on the home-produced compost!

Two compartments! One of them already filling up…