Surprisingly stench-free

It transpires that I may have overegged the pudding regarding the smelly job. It was, in fact, pretty much odour-free.  I also learned a lot about compost and the things that do and don't break down easily. Avocado stones take a long time to break down but eventually turn into a rather beautifully-coloured beige mush. The stickers on grapefruits remain as bright as the day they were printed, however long they stay in a compost bin. Grass cuttings, if not mixed with other stuff, will break down into a layer of thick green sludge.

I have completely renovated the shady bed in my garden. Pictures as soon as I reach my digital camera and laptop.  Above is the before picture: the ugly brick wall is my neighbour's extension (built long before I moved in) and you can see the true horror of dalek-like plastic compost bin. Once the bin was gone I simply removed everything from the bed, putting any plants I wanted to keep in a water-filled trug. After weeding and adding compost I'd reached what I call the "let the dog see the rabbit" stage, pictured right, where I figure out how much space I have, which plants I'd like to put back in and what I need to make a trip to the garden centre for.

I ended up buying five ivies, three hellebores - one white (picture to the left), one deep burgundy and one a lighter, spotted burgundy, plus a fern from the garden centre, and replanting two other ferns, some grasses and daffodils to complete the bed.  I finally planted the orange-berried pyracantha I bought months ago to start to fill up the bare wall, and the ivies and passion flower (to the right of the first picture) should, over time, do the rest. I finished off with a thick covering of bark mulch to preserve moisture, suppress weeds and add organic material.

I was pleased with the overall result: although it doesn't look that much different in the "after pic" to the right, the plants now there should solve the bare wall problem over time and will be much happier in the shady position.  And the absence of the compost dalek has to be an improvement.  The grass looks rather battered but will soon bounce back. I even have a (perhaps vain) hope that, with some ivy camouflage,  a blue tit might be convinced to raise a family in the bird box.

Comments

[james and the blue cat]

Just been turning over my compost heap, and apparently grapefruit peel has a half-life of about a thousand years, which is something I think somebody should have told me.

[Jane Perrone]

I compost a hell of a lot of grapefruit (my household gets through about seven a week) and although they do take a long time to break down, break down they will (except the stickers). The only other problem is that citrus does tend to make the compost a little on the acidic side, although of course this can be corrected with lime. You can speed them on the way to compost oblivion my chopping them up before composting but that's way too much effort for me. As with much in the business of composting, it's just a case of patience and lots of turning.