Mulch

 What to do on a hot sunny day, I checked my mulch bins, this is free brown goodness, all we do is shred our huge magnolia leaves and dump them in black dustbins, I have two, then forget about them. Each bin starts full and shrinks down, other than the initial cost of the bins, rest is a bit of work. I did get heavy duty black bins, hubby drilled holes about 2" from base, I put all wire rack in the bottom, much cleaner than black bin liners.

I spread about half of the bin on the bare patches in my square bed, protecting the transplanted plant in the middle , I did the same to my poorly Astilbe, it does not look well, I've not given up hope yet, it's been fed and I water daily. Gladiolas are beginning to bloom, I've got more than last year, but not as many as I planted.

I am not to bothered in getting the temperature on my hotbin composters up into the green section, my older bin hovers just below the premium range and still make great compost quickly.

When our local council stopped collecting our garden waste bags back in 2021 and proposed to charge us for collections from a wheelie bin, which we would need to purchase. We decided we did not want a third bin, so we purchased my first hotbin, a shredder and the two black dustbins, the money we saved covered the cost of the items in just over two years, and with the cost of my second hotbin, we have still made savings and I get brilliant compost and leaf mulch, I still need to buy more but I do like using my own. 

It's the way my dad ran his garden, the only thing he ever added was farmyard manure from our local farmer, he would deliver a load to the fence at the top of our garden, still in his field, dad and my brother brought it all into the garden, dad had a huge composting bays as well, nothing was wasted all reused back into the soil.

I have lovely memories of long neat rows of veg, living in the country gave us a huge garden, it was all veg beds, feeding us all was a huge job, seeing rows of peas, runnerbeans, carrots, potatoes and loads of other things, dad and my brother Mel were always working outside, Mel started to grow different veg to dad, bringing in modern things. They grew enough for mum to freeze or bottle loads to last through the winter months. 

I do feel blessed with so many happy childhood memories, it's not the case for everyone, we were neither rich or poor, my parents both in their own way gave us a happy childhood, rural Somerset was a wonderful place to grow up, so much freedom back then. It's my mums birthday today, she passed 20 years ago and is still missed.

We had twenty minutes of heavy rain at 6am this morning, I'm sure as I lay in bed I heard the collective sigh of local gardeners, knowing they could stay in bed and rest longer as the gardens were getting their drink naturally, we have had a second sharp short storm since, I'm pleased, water buts will be full.