Composting Brainwave

    I had a bit of a brainwave a couple of weeks back.     I was busy weeding in the veggie patch when I sat up to straighten my back and have a little break, like you do, sitting back on my heels and surveying all the work still to be done I glanced over at the compost bins.  We have three, built together out of old pallets on the side of the veggie patch handy for the patch and the tunnels.   Now the grass and weeds growing all around the bottom of the compost bins was longer and lusher than anything else growing on the veggie patch and it made me think.   Why not build a smaller version of the compost bins and site it in the middle of each of the raised beds in turn.  Leaving it there for a while for the grass trimmings and all the other contents of the bin to start leaching their goodness directly into the ground where I will be wanting to grow next year.  The compost when it is on it's way to  decomposing nicely can be added to the main bins and then the little bin can be re-sited onto another raised bed.   The soil on our veggie patch is very poor, after all it was once part of the main paddock and has only ever been used for grazing for animals and growing grass, and of course it drains downhill so any goodness gets washed downwards with any heavy rain, so the more we can do to feed it and pull up the nutrient levels for growing vegetables the better.    We'll see if this little brainwave is a good one in the years to come if the quality of the soil improves ... but in the meantime it can't possibly do any harm.   Sue xx