Compost Heaps

I dived into the older compost heap, the one in the secret garden, on Thursday. Good job I was off work that day as the weather has been rotten since.
I dug around and got a few pounds of nice looking potatoes, not tried them yet, plus a load of compost. Some of this went into the polytunnel then the rest got bagged up in old compost bags for next spring. I am hopeful that I might not have to buy any compost next year, the first year in the garden I was down to B&Q nearly everyday!

I left half of the heap as it is thick with nettles, good for the butterflies.


I copied some information from this website about nettles (one of my favourite most useful plants) http://www.nettles.org.uk/

Let's take a look at those you may see in a sunny nettle patch.

	Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta A common sight in gardens in the autumn where it will feed on Buddleja flowers and fallen fruit. Migrates from Africa each spring.
	Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae The adults are frequent visitors to garden flowers.
	Peacock - Inachis io Unmistakeable resident butterfly with large distinctive 'eye-spots' on the wings.
	Comma - Polygonia c-album The comma was struggling in the early 1900's but has made a remarkable comeback and is moving steadily northwards. I have had mostly Cabbage White butterflies and a couple of the Tortoiseshells but not much else. The numbers of bees have been down this year as well, last year the secret garden was buzzing with dozens of bees, this year it is more like a dozen over the whole garden. Most gardens can fit in a little clump of nettles in a corner and they are easy to keep under some control, just keep cutting them down for compost then leave the last lot to pop up and flower and leave over winter. Very nutritious too in the spring, it is easy peasy to add a few leaves into your soup or indeed your soap but don't eat the soap. The potatoes on the compost heap are a free gift, any potato peelings I put on near the edge of the heap then when plants appear they grow out the sides and when they are ready I am forced into digging over the heap otherwise I won't get fed. I am not sure why I have had no problems with slugs at the spuds but although there are plenty of the wee blighters on the heap they don't seem to go for them. http://www.nettles.org.uk/