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| Easy-peeler clementine (or satsuma?) chilled from the fridge, seconds before I ate it. |
On Sunday morning, quite early before the day started heating up, we made more progress on The Great Compost Caper. I say 'we', but actually it was BB who did all the work while I cheered him on from the sidelines.
The problems;
Firstly the stuff in the compost bin had stopped doing whatever it was supposed to be doing. The very hot weather dried out the kitchen waste which just sat in a pile on top of the partially digested stuff below. This soil was noisesome, full of bits, and solidly compacted.
Secondly, the bin itself cracked when the builders carefully moved it after all the ground works were completed. I wasn't surprised, it was a plastic Green Johanna bin which we'd had since the 1990s, so it was around 30 years old, and had been moved several times.
On Friday, the replacement arrived and BB assembled it. On Saturday morning we got ot ready; a layer of broken sticks and twigs,
covered by a layer of horrible soil, which was, fortunately full of worms,
a layer of dried out kitchen waste, and half a bucket of water to moisten it.
All that's left to do is to add the rest of the partially digested soil etc, and then hope for the best.
The Green Johanna has never failed us before, except when we gave it too much grass and it started smouldering... oh, and when we gave it a forgotten half sack of potatoes which turned into a very smelly liquid.A bucket of water fixed the first problem, and stirring in a large amount of shredded cardboard and paper solved the second.
So we're hoping that all will soon be well. The lesson is, compost bins don't always thrive if neglected!
....
Today, to my surprise, the men arrived to start on the hup! installation.
Well well well! I've let the lucky winner know; it's the architect. 'I'm going to be optimistic,' he said.
There's not much to see for a day's work as they have been measuring and checking and checking and measuring, and setting up before they start manhandling everything into place.
The hot dry weather is helping them, as everything can be left lying out in the garden overnight without fear of rain.
Good Fruit Guide says:
ReplyDeleteThe name clementine describes the majority of easy-peelers on sale over the year, so is quite a loose term for a whole range of mandarin varieties.
Satsumas are a distinct type of mandarin which are soft and very easy to peel with juicy sweet, slightly tangy, but mildly flavoured segments.
Lots more information about the varieties.
~ skye
Thank you Skye, that's helped me sort them out in my mind 😊
DeleteI'm afraid our compost consists of a very large pile way in the back corner. Surprisingly it actually works. We have a plastic cone one but it's too small for most everything except household (kitchen) compost. Not garden.
ReplyDeleteGood news that the workmen showed up today!!!
Anything that won't go into the compost cone goes into a big garden waste bin and is collected by the council once a fortnight along with household rubbish and recycling. There's also a weekly food waste collection now! But all our food waste goes in our cone.
DeleteI'm so relieved that the installers showed up yesterday, but it does mean you lost the sweepstake!
We neglected our compost bin and the same thing happened. 😳
ReplyDeleteGood news on the installation - measuring and measuring again is so important. 'Measure twice, cut once.'
I hope your compost recovered. It's a help having a second bin to decant everything into.
ReplyDeleteThe installers are here today (Tuesday) and it's going to be a 'cutting day'. Noisy!