Stacking ash wood, bringing in last seasons’ ash, and planted out some spinach before the hens got at it, and earthed up the asparagus where they did.
Time for a cuppa, and later some cider.
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Apparently teak oil etc won’t deter them. There is a specialist paint but as I hardly notice after pressure washing I think I’ll leave it to nature.
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Not really, they make small tracking areas which can be partly hidden by pressure washing. What surprised me was the fact they could eat teak!
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OK, we use a semi permanent oil that needs to be re-done every two years or so but not sure if available in UK, but as you say if you can pressure wash it off.
BTW, some of them can eat anything !
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The worst part was having eaten my furniture to build a nest they built it in a compost bag in my greenhouse. When I used it I put my hand through the nest. Quite pleased with my speed out of there at my age. A few stings but my fault.
I like having them about as they are beneficial in the big scheme of things.
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Bath time, two my girls making the most of an empty raised bed … it’s earmarked for some cauliflowers - must check that I’ve ordered them.
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Jesus!
Revamped my view of them totally in the last few years , and for some reason they seem less aggressive …
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If you leave them alone they’ll leave you alone is what I was told and found it to be true unless you disturb their nest.
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Which compost do you use, and for what?
I gather peat based compost is on the way out soon - is it time to get some while you can?
Several bags of compost I’ve picked up recently were pretty rubbish with mold growing on bits of wood within.
Good questions.
I try to use my own compost, and mix it 1:1:1 with soil and vermiculite.
As my garden has very thin soil I also use spent mushroom compost as a top dressing over winter on my raised beds.
Earlier this year I also used a 50:50 mix of compost and soil. However, the soil was mainly sand, and I suspect the compost was domestic, probably municipal. I don’t trust municipal compost, unless it’s organic, because although it’s usually made to a British Standard you don’t know it’s constituents.
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The ending of peat as compost is something I cannot argue against. The question of whether you buy some that has already found it’s way to the garden centre, that has to be your decision.
I agree about doubts with peat free bags, most that I bought last year seems to be part broken down coir, with mould.
Part of the reason I asked about composting last year was to have a source of my own, I am constantly adding to our clay soil, it’s never as effective as the TV garden shows make you believe.
In the 1970s and 80s I could make a phone call and a lorry load of spent mushroom compost turned up for free. But it had to be a full lorry. A couple of years ago five dump bags was over £100.
In the 1960s, compost was “free”, I remember family convoys to Mere for peat and Cranham Woods for leaf mould and beech mast. It was with hindsight a post war make do and mend, those relatives had 100, 200 foot gardens, grew everything.
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I had not heard about this activity, which is now illegal, although I admit that I have been tempted to raid my own woods in the past. I have friends who own part of Cranham Woods (near Birdlip in Gloucestershire) who would be dismayed to see it happen again.
As an aside, when I was planting some trees last week I was pleased to see that the clay / soil structure had improved since I had first planted trees in 2013.
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Different generation, different culture perhaps. There didn’t seem to be anything covert about it, but I was perhaps 8, 9 years old. I certainly wouldn’t do it now, the possibility of transferring diseased material would make it a no go. The friends my grandparents had seemed to live a life where they knew someone, somewhere, who had access to “essentials”, the man who made Cotswold stone tiles, the farmer who had a stream with watercress. They would drive beehives to Exmoor for the summer and bring them home again in autumn.
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Indeed different times.
Reminds me of a field at France Lynch on the way to a nature reserve that has a stream flowing from a garden with watercress growing.
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I may buy some just to see what I might have been missing (or will miss) as I’ve generally purchased peat free for quite some time.
Was it yourself who mentioned a composting thread the other day? Could be interesting, I may be too selective, and I’m sure I ‘don’t do it proper’.
Until I saw an article today I had no idea what ‘no green waste’ meant, still not sure I do.
When you see things like this I obviously don’t undertsand how stupid many people must be:
Amazing many councils include teabags when most contain plastic.
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I asked a question Hot Composting
@Camphuw wrote an epic reply that I have tried to follow in practice. It appears to be working.
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Gosh that’s really comprehensive!
In the 1960s when we practised composting it was customary not to include potato peal, orange peal, and mushrooms… after all these years this has stuck, and i’m not sure if it really applies.
Can only think to avoid causing the next potato blight, or other fungal diseases…? 
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