Back in November I posted about the new mega compost bin my eldest had built me from old pallets. When I came home from the monthly HPS meeting on Saturday I was thrilled to see that he had built me the second bin he had promised. I suspect my hard work the weekend before emptying out and removing the last old bin may have encouraged him to get this done or it might have been my heartfelt pleas as the first bin was full despite its vastness.
You can see the slope of the top of the garden and in particular the drop in the soil level from one bin to the next so we still have to landscape this drop out of existence. What these new compost bins have given me are two large and substantial compost bins which are positioned at right angles to the old bins meaning that I should be able to empty them better. It also means that although large the bins are less visible from the house compared to when the three old bins formed a line across the back of the garden. This is turn has freed up some space near the top of the steps for me to plant something and this has led to the creation of what I think will be called the loggery.
You will recall that I had the willow, under which the compost bins are sited, heavily lopped back in October 2014. This left a large pile of logs which have either gone to my friend Victoria for her willow sculptures or to my son’s scout group for burning. There were however a number of very large logs which were just too heavy for us to carry down the garden so they have been sitting in the way for the last 18 months. Having emptied out the last compost bin and finding myself presented with extra space I decided to roll the logs down the slope and to pile them up on the corner at the top of the steps to produce a small loggery. It’s a bit like a stumpery but made with logs and not tree stumps! Once the ground levels are sorted out the loggery can be established properly and my plan is to fill in the gaps between the logs with soil and to plant it up with ferns and maybe some bulbs such as snowdrops or hepaticas. Having heard Julian Sutton of Desirable Plants talk about the best growing conditions for hepaticas I think this small installation might improve the flowering of my hepaticas which would be wonderful.
