Three years ago this was how my compost heap looked. Today I restarted the job of spreading the good stuff 2013 in my veg garden.

My arms and back ache as I have spent most of today’s daylight hours emptying a compost heap. Not before time my wife thinks when she sees the other heap (below).

Even with ‘greedy boards’ to hold extra compostables the heap is too high. The last grass clippings of the season won’t fit even though the soft, nitrogen rich texture will help rot the dryer brown material available in quantities during autumn.

The greedy boards are the home made extension to the front and sides of the heap. The sort of thing you see on waste skips that are overfilled. The difference is my compost will shrink to half it’s current size. Then it will be turned into the now empty sister bin no.2 to aerate and mix the compost.

No Dig Composting and Spreading

• One use of compost is to spread it loosely on top of your current soil and let the worms drag it down into the soil. If using this method do not pre-dig the soil.
• I have just dug out a conifer that had got too big for it’s boots. The resultant hole has been filled with compost as partial replacement of 15 years of the soil nourishing the conifer. I also topped up my raised vegetable bed.
• The second cubic meter of compost has gone into a new project for my Japanese garden to help with the levels.
• I will leave my compost heap no 2 all winter to continue rotting and hope to be able to spread it as mulch in spring.