Making the garden grow

                                THE COMPOST BINS
Another tub of compost was added to the garden today. Its taken a liitle longer to process during the colder months but still light years ahead of the time it took to get compost from waste in Scotland. We are adding quite a lot of lemon skins now, our soil is very alkaline so we are trying to even things out. If you pop some soil in a jar with vinegar you just about get an explosion as the alkali material reacts with the acid of the vinegar. Our flower bed in the back garden is really starting to look good. Much of this thanks to Johns hardwork, I am more of an "artistic director"  dont you know. Hey they also serve who only stand and wait!

Our next door neighbour was fascinated by our compost making system, sounds posh, in fact its two black dustbins that have holes drilled in them. Serefino was throwing vegetable waste on his garden one day so John showed him what we do. Its really necessary to try to improve our soil as it is poor and does not hold moisture well. Its also means we recycle all the kitchen waste, less for land fill too. We had also been putting some of the wood ash from the stove on but now know this is not advisable with our soil as it can raise the PH and prevent the plants from taking in any nutrients that are available. The other great thing about making your own compost is that it comes free and is not damaging the natural landscape elsewhere.