November has arrived....
You will now see the logic of having a compost heap. All the activity of the last few weeks will have generated a great heap of ‘stuff’, whilst some may regard it as rubbish it is actually gold dust.
When composted it should provide quantities of lovely, nutritious, crumbly organic matter that is beneficial to the soil whatever type you have. It improves both thin, sandy soils and heavy clay by providing nutrition and water.
A nice dry day this month could be perfect for building a compost bin. In an ideal world it would be placed on concrete and consist of three bins each about 2metres square, but I appreciate that not everyone has the space to do this without turning the entire garden over to composting. Create the best you can with the space you have. Corrugated iron and pallets are good materials, but make them as big as you can, they will fill up so easily.
You need one for current use and one that is last years material that is breaking down. A few spades of old muck that already has the red worms in it will help to get the process moving.
The third bin is ideal for leaves, as leaf compost is good for azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons as it is acid.
November is the month to plant bare rooted trees and shrubs, these are much cheaper than potted subjects, but have a smaller window of viability and need to be planted or heeled in (i.e. temporarily covered with earth in veg garden or the like) or they will dry out and die.
Happy Gardening
Caroline