The Great Compost Experiment

Post tree hacking- can finally access the side of the house

Compost bins in position having finished their job as parking cones

Last weekend, being forecast as the last of the decent summer weather, was spent in the garden. It's a nice size, packed with masses of interesting shrubs and plants but rather overgrown. The plan was to make a space down at the bottom of the garden to accommodate the 2 big compost bins we brought from the previous property and use them for their proper purpose ( although they did make very good bollards to reserve parking spaces when we moved)

Clearing a space involved quite a lot of bramble removal, lopping down branches of vigorous self-seeded trees and removing the grave marker for 'Sunbeam' (presume ex-cat - we'd previously found the grave of 'Merlin' in another flower bed). Ian had a fine time starting to fill one of the compost bins on scientific principles following instructions in the compost manual. Great one for manuals my husband - I'm more of the 'If all else fails read the instructions' school. The compost bins will be joined at some point by a 3rd which is currently overflowing near the house.

Meanwhile, to move the compost bins from where they were temporarily stored by the side of the house involved some serious hacking back of a tree and creepers which were starting to invade the guttering. Needs more shaping as it looks like an umbrella at the moment but it'll do. The borders are now filled with branches awaiting the arrival of Ian's new toy - a garden shredder.