Compost bin #3 is now fit to burst and my father-in-law hasn’t even finished the mowing! This afternoon therefore I opened up bin #1 and started spreading the compost onto the clear areas of the plot, which actually isn’t really a huge amount right now — perhaps enough to add up to two of the seven beds. Amazingly given that no material has been added to that bin since May, it was still warm. Not hot, but obviously above ambient temperature. Not all the material is broken down quite as well as I’d like, but it’s not too bad and as there’s not an awful lot that I’ll be planting out for the next five to six months it can just sit on the beds and finish off. Possibly if I’d turned it the result would have been better because the contents would have been mixed up again, but I have nowhere to turn it into 🙂
I still have the area where I was growing carrots to cover, but then I’ll have to have a think about what I do with the rest to allow us to start filling the bin again. Perhaps it might be time to start making the asparagus bed. That would have the additional benefit of getting rid of a lot of the cardboard I’ve been stashing away specifically to provide the mulch for the new bed.