March 2013

At River Barn we are mostly on heavy clay which becomes waterlogged very quickly. Consequently we have planted lots of willow and Cornus which sucks up quite a bit of moisture. But to keep them decorative as well as useful we pollard them every couple of years in early spring. They then produce lots of young whippy growth which colours up beautifully in the following winter. They then look like torches on a sunny winters day.

Last weekend was the pollarding day and then followed the shredding. A whole day’s work. Once shredded the willow filled one of our oak bins. All this matter is pure carbon and to get good useable compost it needs to be layered with equal parts of nitrogenous matter, some soil to provide the mix with the bacteria and a little lime.. Once those bacteria start to work and multiply they tend to produce an acid environment which will eventually inhibit the bacterial activity. The lime (which is alkaline) keeps the ph neutral.

After two or three days, the compost gets so hot it’s too hot to touch! Always a bit of a thrill.