The Charming Nook

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

I have been away travelling recently, which has disrupted my blogging routine. Whilst I was away, I paid a visit to a garden (and one of the best Japanese style gardens) that I will be posting about soon. That additional post will be up on my blog next week, on Wednesday 29th January 2025. My usual blogging routine will be continuing thereafter, with a new post every Sunday at 10am.

Today’s post is to show you all a project that the Mr and I have been working on over the last month. Enjoy!

---

Intro

As the title of this post alludes to, the project the Mr and I have been working on this January is to carve out the compost heap area in The Woodland Garden.

We do currently have a large compost heap next to the greenhouse that has been used as a temporary heap since 2023. That is not an ideal location for the compost heap because it is sunny and can be viewed from various points around the garden.

It is currently acting as quite a helpful wind break at this point in time however!

The new site for the compost heap is in a shaded location, which will help regulate the temperature of heap better. The new compost site is also going to be a three-bay system, so that the heaps can be regularly turned from bay to bay as the material decomposes. It will have a fourth bay for storing our wheelbarrow.

---

What follows below is a visual of our endeavors over the last few weeks working on the new site for the compost bays.

Stage one in The Woodland Garden

Before digging:

Once we starting digging, we encountered some huge roots in the soil, likely from the old shrub we removed in this area in 2023.

After the initial dig, the Mr and I covered over the area with some weed membrane whilst the frost and rain arrived:

We are currently storing the earth dug up from this area in a large builders sack and it will be used in a raised beds in the future.

---

Stage two in The Woodland Garden

Over the last weekend, the Mr and I worked on the next stage of the new compost bays. This involved digging out about two more metres of earth out, along with a larger section for a side wall:

We don’t have any spare builders sacks for anymore earth at the moment (and to be honest, I am not sure where we would be able to store it!), so instead the Mr cleared the patio that we (mostly Mr) dug up in The Suntrap in 2024. We used that area for putting the additional dug up soil.

Whilst the Mr worked on this area, I prepared for the next stage of the compost bays, by digging up some ferns and astilbe that needed to be moved. I will be replanting these into a new area next week on a dry day.

---

Clearing up The Suntrap

Before The Suntrap was cleared, it was looking quite a mess:

After clearing, the Suntrap was the perfect place to top up with the earth from The Woodland Garden:

The area was then covered over with cardboard to repress the weeds. We will be simply laying bark chips down whilst we decide how we want to design the area.

---

Reusing and recycling for The Woodland Garden

On a side note, we currently have a huge amount of old compost and bark bags that are filled with rubble that we have dug up from the garden since 2023. We also have a large amount of paving slabs that we have lifted from various parts of the garden. Both of these create a very messy area down the side of the gardens:

I have plans for all the terracotta pots pictured above 🙂 We were recently given a large amount of these from the Mr’s relatives.

---

Rather than paying for the old slabs and the rubble to be collected and disposed of, I wanted to see if we could somehow reuse all of these materials in the garden. Many of the slabs are either chipped or broken apart, so aren’t in a condition many people would be able to reuse them.

Therefore, I came up with the idea of reusing all of these materials to build a retaining wall around the compost bay area. The rubble will be used as a foundation layer and also behind the back wall to help add strength and assist with drainage.

So far, the trial run of testing out my idea on a small section has worked really well and it is very stable.

I first laid down two-three bags of rubble and tamped it down:

I then laid down the first two layers of the side wall:

We are not using any form of adhesive or grouting, so the wall can be completely removed without issue in the future as needed. It is essentially a dry stone wall. I used any small broken pieces to pack into the gaps to help lock the wall together:

I am not completely decided yet as to how we will retain the bank of soil that runs along the back of the compost heap, but I have a rough plan to use a combination of vertical placement of the larger paving slabs, with the rubble packed behind it. The slabs could be slopped backwards into the slope to help hold them in place and keep the earth back.

The small slabs can then be placed in front of that possibly, to create a pathway for easy access down the back of the compost bays for maintenance.

If there are enough paving slabs, it may also be possible to create a small wall seat on the side wall, which would be nice to sit and rest on when I work out in the front garden. I am sure that our friendly neighbourhood cats would also like the wall for sitting and sleeping.

One of the said-friendly neighbourhood cats, pictured below:

---

Conclusion

I am really pleased with how the new site for the compost bays is looking. It is going to take some time to complete this project, but it will be well worth having somewhere to properly create compost over time. I have never created a three bay system, but I have heard how well they work.

It will also be great to completely clear the huge mound next to The Greenhouse…

For now, the area has been covered with weed membrane fabric to repress the weeds. This weed membrane fabric was recycled after being removed from The Suntrap:

We have some recycled trellis that is currently in storage; I saved this from other areas of the garden. This may be used to help screen the heaps from the street side, though all of the hedging and planting will help screen the heaps in time too. There is a clematis montana starting to grow over the back wall, which could eventually sprawl over the trellis, which would create a pretty screen to the compost bays.

---

I hope you enjoyed seeing what the Mr and I have been working on recently in the garden. February 2025 looks like it will be a busy month in the garden! Until then, happy gardening 🙂