[Derek[_6_]]

From today's Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...er-months.html

First on the list, now the frosts are here, is building a compost heap in my greenhouse.
I'll turn my outdoor ones first and start the new indoors one with any partially decomposed material.
I'll make it ratproof (fingers crossed) and so will need some wire netting on the base.

I love the free heat it will generate, as will my tender perennials and early spring veg.
I will add offerings from the hen house, kitchen waste and occasional visits from the
male members of the household.
In spring it will be moved out to make room for the tomatoes again.

I have heard of using a 'hotbed' to grow melons under glass, but a new
compost heap during the winter months?

www.lincolnfuchsiasociety.info

Bob Hobden wrote:
Is that a good idea? It's not long since I cleaned out and used Jeyes to
disinfect our little greenhouse ready for the winter, rotting plant material
is just going to encourage moulds etc, or am I wrong?
The Victorians used manure outside the greenhouse in a separate pit to
provide heat for growing pineapples etc.

We put compost under grow bags in the cold frame in late winter to ready
them for growing, but mostly all we got was HUGE potato plants growing up
and over the grow bags and smothering everything in them!

[Jake]

On Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:47:28 +0000, Derek
wrote:

From today's Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...er-months.html

Nah. I'll stick to my couple of layers of bubble-wrap. Bought some
industrial sized rolls a few years ago. Just finished attaching them
after the annual disinfectation. Works fine for me and it's easy, in
the spring, to dunk the wrap in a weak solution of Jeyes and hang it
on the line to dry before being packed away again.

And I think I can stay fit enough without spending an hour chopping
trees down and then another hour planting new ones in their place. But
I'm now worried about what I might be breathing in when I'm gardening!
Better buy a mask for next year!