[Christine]

It’s giving me a headache.   

Three years ago I took over an allotment in reasonably good order – except that all the signs were that it had gone through many years of the throw on some more Growmore type of care. It certainly hadn’t seen compost over most of it for a good few years when I looked at the soil.

I’m the biggest scrounger of things to compost on the face of the earth and am given a fair amount of goodies to add to the compost heap by family, friends and passersby. But there is no way that I can make enough to follow the advice to add compost to a quarter or a third of the allotment every year given in John’s last newsletter. 

I spent an arm and a leg last autumn to buy in enough decent compost to make a difference to the greater majority of the plot. The rewards are now visible for all to see.  So it’s excellent advice.

But with the standard of most commercially produced compost this year and the cost, more people wanting to have their own compost heaps, and with the doubts over contamination of farmyard manure, there seems to be no easy way to be able to follow the advice.

There – I think I’ve managed to state my problem as briefly as possible. Or am I the only person in the world with an allotment that is too big for the products of two compost heaps annually?

[peterjf]

We have 3 compost bins , 

number one the biggy is 2mts sqaure and about 1 mtr deep in composting waste ,

number 2 and 3 are smaller , they are topped up with rotted down compost from number one and topped up with easy / fast rotting materials

all are in a layer cake fashion , leaves , green waste ,  fresh manure, and finally we collect it every autumn and its ready to go on  the plot beds in november ,

it works for us in darkest east yorkshire

[Christine]

Peter it's not that I can't make compost and do pretty much as you do. It's just the fact that I can't make enough because I don't have the "stuff" to make it from.   

And I don't know where to get enough "stuff" from as everyone seems to be using their spare "stuff" for their own heaps. 

[joyfull]

find out if anybody on the chicken pages are local to you so that you could have some of their stuff when they clean them out - chicken poo is good stuff in the compost 

[aelf]

thought of making freinds with a working gardener? I have and he is only too happy to give me the grass clippings, weeds, leaves etc that he clears away in his job. ok, they won't make high quality compost but it does add bulk and, as others have suggested, throw a couple of handfulls of chicken manure in every so often to improve the quality. My mate drops the bins of garden waste in my front garden and I return the empty bins to him. He doesn't use any suspect weedkillers or growth promoters so it's all good stuff. It's a good system and saves him effort (and money) disposing of it all. I have 5 sand sacks (1 ton bags) full now, enough to do half my plot, and my plot is a good size.

[peapod]

See if theres any pigeon fanciers in your area, their poo is good to mix with your compost and will bulk it up...same with gerbils, rabbits, hamsters, etc etc.
Ask your neighbours for any paper waste and green waste, and look out for the local council mowing near you and ask what they do with the clippings

[barney rubble]

Perhaps also try a veg prep company - they'll have lots of peelings

[aelf]

florists.....

[GreenOwl]

Its a common problem I think.  I could certainly use more than I can create.  I collect extra from my local Community Composting place.

What about including growing green manures in your crop rotation?  I've never had much success myself but in theory it would help.

[HLS]

If you work in an office, try putting out a small bin for everyone to put fruit peelings and tea bags in.  I would do it in my office but one of my colleagues has got there first!

Other than that, I don't know, and I'm facing a smaller version of the same problem - I can produce enough compost for my garden but not for my plot as well.  Some councils collect green waste and sell the resulting compost relatively cheaply, but not all do.

[aelf]

Some councils collect green waste and sell the resulting compost relatively cheaply, but not all do.

Our council gives the compost away to our allotment society but I don't use it as it's low quality and full of weed seed.

[Christine]

Lots of good ideas folks.

I'm getting my fair share of pigeon poo but one has to realise that we are all competing for it on the allotments so the pigeon fanciers have to do share and share about.

The two local working gardeners also have competition for their offerings would you believe. I did have one friendly one but he seems to have gone on to hard landscaping for the interim. There are an awful lot of terraced houses here with little or no garden, often given over to concrete for car parking or houses with very small gardens so I suppose that there isn't going to be a lot of take away waste. A lot has been going in the council collection garden waste bins which have been emptied free until recently (of course things could change with the charge coming in).

It's a small town with very little in the way of works places that would be able to supply waste (a florist would never make money here  ) And unfortunately (or luckily for some) I don't work. The local council does not collect grass except if you catch the team that mows the local bowling green which is rare for me.

The local council community composting facility sells what it doesn't use on its own farm. It's always been a private commercial concern up here.

I did come away with a large bag of cardboard from the gardening association hut on Saturday morning rather than see it go to the tip.  Daughter has just sorted out her garden and there will be a lot less to come out of there now, not that there was ever much from the postage stamp. She does bring her vegetable peelings and other useful waste along though.

[strangerachael]

Are you growing comfrey? If you can get a few root cuttings and get a patch going that will give you lots of activating bulk. Also - this is a good one - let your weeds get really big before you pull them up - lots more compost! I recently got a large bale of straw from a stable yard for £2, I got it to put under the strawberries, obviously you wouldn't normally buy compost ingredients! but there was much more than I needed - layer it with your weeds, makes a great mixture. I also use green manure wherever there is space.

[SG6]

When I moved to my present place the ground was poor and shallow over chalk. When I made a small veg patch I do not recall digging in compost. I dug in what is best described a composted bark, Mix-and-Mulch. When I grew stuff in post I simply dumped the old compost on the patch to break up the soil.

In the autumn the leaves from the trees get collected and put on, usually raked in to stop them blowing.

Over my time I have simply dug anything that has come to hand into the patch and the soil is now easily workable by a hand trowel. Another newer veg patches have been done the same. All seem to be doing well and I have a good worm population which I count as indicating a good planting medium.

My point is that compost has never been the one thing, literally anything that looks to have potential has gone on and in, odd half bags of sand as well. Haven't tried sawdust yet but simply because I haven't run across any but I suspect that it would be OK and if I have the oppertunity then I will try it.

[Christine]

I've not got any comfrey going at the moment - given time that is the one thing that I do need to add to the collection.

Leaves are something I'm going to have to track down as well.