Well, the weather was playing me for a fool today. I decided to fill the trailer with green waste compost again and mix it with my own compost before spreading it on one of the beds. No sooner had I got started on the spreading than the rain started hammering down. Then stopped. Then hammered down again. Then stopped. I think I spent half the day hiding in the compost bay I was emptying whilst the rain turned the plot into even more of a quagmire.
In the end I got a layer of compost on most of the bed containing the asparagus, just missing out around the gooseberries and currants, and on most of one of the other beds apart from the area still occupied by leeks.
It was slow work. Pushing a barrow full of compost through the soggy mud was tough. It kept bogging down. I took photos, but they just don’t do the awfulness of it justice.
Anyhow, it does mean that I’m actually making reasonable progress now. One compost bin is empty and I’ve just started on the next. I have two full beds (of seven total) that remain to be done and a few odd bits and pieces where there are still Winter crops. Then there is the “herb bed” alongside Frankenstein’s greenhouse, two greenhouses and two polytunnels to do. The greenhouses and polytunnels will probably wait until all the Winter crops come out and it’s time to plant the Summer veg.
I’m actually quite surprised how little of my own compost has been used up so far. There were three bays ready to go. I reckon each probably contains between one-and-a-half and two tonnes and as I said I’ve emptied the first. I’d guess there must be at least four trailer loads of the bought-in green waste compost, too. Probably more. I may have underestimated how far my own would go, but then I was making two new beds as well.