Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!
I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.
We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.
To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!
Friday 28 September 2012
Tidying up and sorting out in the Polytunnel
My tomatoes are finished and all the pots are full of weeds. It all needs emptying and composting and scrubbing out and sweeping up.
So, I emptied and dug and pulled and swept up...
And when I had some clear growing medium I planted out some spare Kale, Spinach and Sprouting Broccoli plants, which will stay inside the polytunnel and give us some nice, early, tender greens in the winter.
I already have some growing which we are already eating now - the pots on the left contain big Nero di Toscana and Red Kale plants.
I also picked some of the sweet peppers - they have done well this year and are now in the freezer, having been chopped up and roasted in olive oil.
I have more winter crops to sow in the pots, as and when I finish a bit more tidying up I will sow winter greens and carrots, so we have some tasty leaves and baby carrots to eat.
I envy your polytunnel; the growing season was so naff this year at least my raspberries were going great guns! I'm trying to decide what to do with my small garden space - I'm considering doing some cold-frames on the rocks out back or maybe a bit on the patio outside as I have little use for a patio, really. Peppers look fantastic, what varieties did you plant?
ReplyDeleteThe thin curly red ones ones in the photo are HSL Nardullo, then next are (bigger)Marconi Rossa, then (lying down)Sweet Californian and the final pair of pots by the Kales are HSL Yellow Banana
ReplyDeleteAll are really good in the polytunnel but the plants need to have a long growing season to do really well.I plant them inside in a heated propagator in Feb, then put them inside cold frames inside the polytunnel once the plants are about 8 inches high. By the time they are too tall to fit inside the cold frame with the lid closed the danger of frost has gone.