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Grow Your Own / Gardening / Composting
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on: February 26, 2008, 12:14:39 pm
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Compost is a rich, dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling substance. It is made of recycled garden and kitchen waste.
Did you know that you can also use paper products (shredded or torn into tiny pieces) in your compost?
It can be used to feed and condition the soil and to make potting mixes.
Did you know that around 40 per cent of the average dustbin contents are suitable for home-composting? Can you imagine how much it helps cut down on landfill? 
Many people mistakenly think that making compost is difficult and tricky, and there's an art to it! But in all honestly, all you need is to provide the right ingredients and let mother nature do the rest.
To make fabulous compost though, a little bit of knowledge wouldn't go astray. Here are a few tips to get you started.
* Anything that was once living will compost, but some items are best avoided. Meat, dairy and cooked food can attract vermin and should not be home-composted.
* Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as 'activators', getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess.
* Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.
* For best results, use a mixture of types of ingredient. The right balance is something learnt by experience, but a rough guide is to use equal amounts by volume of greens and browns (see below).
GREENS (or nitrogen rich ingredients)
Urine (diluted with water 20:1)
Comfrey leaves
Nettles
Grass cuttings
Other green materials
Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen
Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds
Young green weed growth – avoid weeds with seeds
Soft green prunings
Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses
Poultry manure and bedding
BROWNS (or carbon rich ingredients) Slow to rot
Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes
Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste
Cardboard tubes
Glossy magazines – although it is better for the environment to pass them on to your local doctors’ or dentists' surgery or send them for recycling
Newspaper – although it is better for the environment to send your newspapers for recycling
Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs – hay, straw, shredded paper, wood shavings
Tough hedge clippings
Woody prunings
Old bedding plants
Bracken
Sawdust
Wood shavings
Fallen leaves can be composted but the best use of them is to make leafmould
Other compostible items
Wood ash, in moderation
Hair, nail clippings
Egg shells (crushed)
Natural fibres eg. 100% wool or cotton
Do NOT compost
Meat
Fish
Cooked food
Coal & coke ash
Cat litter
Dog faeces
Disposable nappies
Hope this helps some of the newbie composters! 
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4
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The Road To A Better Life / Eco-Friendly / Composting
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on: February 26, 2008, 12:12:12 pm
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Compost is a rich, dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling substance. It is made of recycled garden and kitchen waste.
Did you know that you can also use paper products (shredded or torn into tiny pieces) in your compost?
It can be used to feed and condition the soil and to make potting mixes.
Did you know that around 40 per cent of the average dustbin contents are suitable for home-composting? Can you imagine how much it helps cut down on landfill?
Many people mistakenly think that making compost is difficult and tricky, and there's an art to it! But in all honestly, all you need is to provide the right ingredients and let mother nature do the rest.
To make fabulous compost though, a little bit of knowledge wouldn't go astray. Here are a few tips to get you started.
* Anything that was once living will compost, but some items are best avoided. Meat, dairy and cooked food can attract vermin and should not be home-composted.
* Some things, like grass mowings and soft young weeds, rot quickly. They work as 'activators', getting the composting started, but on their own will decay to a smelly mess.
* Older and tougher plant material is slower to rot but gives body to the finished compost - and usually makes up the bulk of a compost heap. Woody items decay very slowly; they are best chopped or shredded first, where appropriate.
* For best results, use a mixture of types of ingredient. The right balance is something learnt by experience, but a rough guide is to use equal amounts by volume of greens and browns (see below).
GREENS (or nitrogen rich ingredients)
Urine (diluted with water 20:1)
Comfrey leaves
Nettles
Grass cuttings
Other green materials
Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen
Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds
Young green weed growth – avoid weeds with seeds
Soft green prunings
Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses
Poultry manure and bedding
BROWNS (or carbon rich ingredients) Slow to rot
Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes
Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste
Cardboard tubes
Glossy magazines – although it is better for the environment to pass them on to your local doctors’ or dentists' surgery or send them for recycling
Newspaper – although it is better for the environment to send your newspapers for recycling
Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs – hay, straw, shredded paper, wood shavings
Tough hedge clippings
Woody prunings
Old bedding plants
Bracken
Sawdust
Wood shavings
Fallen leaves can be composted but the best use of them is to make leafmould
Other compostible items
Wood ash, in moderation
Hair, nail clippings
Egg shells (crushed)
Natural fibres eg. 100% wool or cotton
Do NOT compost
Meat
Fish
Cooked food
Coal & coke ash
Cat litter
Dog faeces
Disposable nappies
Hope this helps some of the newbie composters!
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5
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Grow Your Own / Trading Post / About the Trading Post
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on: February 26, 2008, 11:50:45 am
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Feel free to advertise your stuff here! And if you've got any spare seeds lying around why not advertise here, and see if anyone's got any of theirs spare that they'd like to swap with you?
All we ask is that you're accurate in your description of your wares
Happy bartering!
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6
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Your Life / Pets / Feels like i own a zoo!
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on: February 26, 2008, 11:42:06 am
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Ok.. my pets...
Coco - a 1 year old chocolate labrador
Chooky - a chook, believe it or not! lol
Tilly - a 10 year old 12hh pony
Mork - a 1 year old dairy x pygmy goat
Mindy - Mork's twin sister
2 geese who have adopted us and moved in from the farm over the road... ooops! 
18 wild ducks who come for breakfast every morning at the pond, and quite often stay for the day
That's it i think! 
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7
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Down On The Farm / Oink Oink! / I want pigs!
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on: February 26, 2008, 11:36:30 am
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One of my main ambitions is to breed pigs to seel for free range pork.
Does anyone do this? Is there a market for it? Any tips?
xxxx
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8
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Grow Your Own / Grow Your Own / Re: growing cabbage and broad beans
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on: February 26, 2008, 11:30:15 am
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As you well know, i'm also growing cabbages and broad beans
Today i sorted out the greenhouse and got it in some sort of order! And i sowed 8 more broad beans, and 8 sage
My first broad beans and cabbages are doing really well - not as well as yours though  lol
xxxx
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9
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Down On The Farm / Goats / Mork and Mindy
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on: February 26, 2008, 08:04:23 am
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We've got twin boy/girl goats. They're dairy x pygmy and sooo cute and tame! They jump up and give you cuddles like a dog would and they walk on a lead.. they're lovely
They share a paddock with our pony, Tilly
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10
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Down On The Farm / Chooks / My chooks
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on: February 26, 2008, 07:41:54 am
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Well, we started off with 8 chooks, but foxy loxy got 7 of them 
We're waiting for the next battery hen welfare site rescue in Kent, and we'll be taking 7 more.
In the meantime however, it looks like we might have to buy a couple of chooks from the local chicken farm to keep the one chook we've got left company. Those chooks won't be ready for about another 2 weeks tho
Poor chooky needs some friends!
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11
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Down On The Farm / Keeping Up Appearances / Neverending jobs!
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on: February 26, 2008, 07:39:04 am
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It feels like there's constantly something to do here! Fencing, gardening, veg plots, looking after the animals, the kids, decorating, maintaining the outbuildings etc....
Does anyone else feel like sometimes it's just getting on top of them???
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13
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Down On The Farm / Your Land / Our land
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on: February 26, 2008, 07:35:50 am
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We've got just under 3 acres which we bought with my parents last march.
We've split the house into a 2 bed semi and a 3 bed semi. We love it here.. it's really peaceful!
Will go an put some pics of the place in the pics and vids section in a while
xxxx
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14
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Your Life / Hobbies / Hobbies
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on: February 26, 2008, 07:19:03 am
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Do have a hobby you'd like to share with people? A craft that you're good at and want people to know more about it?
Tell us all about it here!
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15
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Your Life / Pets / Pets
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on: February 26, 2008, 07:18:02 am
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What pets do you have? Talk all about their quirky ways in here!
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