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Sorry if this topic repeats any earlier ones.... I had a search but couldn't find any. My question comes about from a comment by one of the presenters on that excellent gardening programme “Beechgrove Garden” from BBC Scotland. This week (airs locally on Sunday mornings) Jim McColl presented a section on composting, leaf-mould, manure etc and right at the end of the item said of his home-made compost, “Look at that, absolutely wonderful stuff! But our style of composting does not kill weeds SO THIS HAS TO BE BURIED!” [My emphasis.]
I’m interested in this suggestion for two reasons which both boil down to the experience that both my own compost and local horse manure (even if several years old) produce masses of weeds and particularly grasses from horses’ hay feed etc. Much of the standard advice around spreading compost seems to increase this problem – for example leaving on the surface over winter to be weathered and drawn down by worms, or using as a mulch in flower borders. I used that technique in the fruit cage last year and produced something approaching a very good lawn but awful fruitcage…. I don’t let either my own home-produced compost or stable manure get anywhere near the asparagus bed because it creates more problems than benefits.
Unfortunately “burying it`” sounds very labour intensive if you’ve got to take off inches of top soil, spread compost/manure, replace top soil…. I use an alternative easier technique each year with a bean trench and could adopt that for peas. It’s also more easily adopted for any veg grown in containers including potatoes in bags (potatoes tend to ignore and overcome most weeds anyway). Alliums and brassicas are more difficult as they do get overpowered by weeds so perhaps the so-called “honey hole” is the answer there though I don’t know if that’s a technique that works (see below).
The honey-hole technique (I learn from the Internet) is simply a technique of digging a hole, filling with compost/manure up to a few inches below the natural surface level and then topping with replaced soil. That would work well for trees and shrubs and individual plants such as globe artichokes but would get a bit labour intensive for a bed of, say, cauliflowers (which would hate the loosened soil anyway…) But the theory (note, theory!) is that the weather, insects and roots etc will both disperse and find the “honey” (rich nutrients etc) so you stand a chance of reaping the benefits without all the problems of encouraging weeds…. It works on the basis that roots don't take nourishment from the surface (indeed surface watering generally discouraged...) but from several inches down and those inches are sufficient to discourage weed germination.
Is this "honey hole" theory going to work? Any other bright ideas or solutions please? The one thing I’m not going to do this winter is spread home-made compost or manure on the surface or mix it in with topsoil..... Leafmould might be ok for that but not anything with weed seeds because it just creates more work and I'm increasingly allergic to it, particularly weeding.... Suggestions very welcome. Thanks. bb.
I’m interested in this suggestion for two reasons which both boil down to the experience that both my own compost and local horse manure (even if several years old) produce masses of weeds and particularly grasses from horses’ hay feed etc. Much of the standard advice around spreading compost seems to increase this problem – for example leaving on the surface over winter to be weathered and drawn down by worms, or using as a mulch in flower borders. I used that technique in the fruit cage last year and produced something approaching a very good lawn but awful fruitcage…. I don’t let either my own home-produced compost or stable manure get anywhere near the asparagus bed because it creates more problems than benefits.
Unfortunately “burying it`” sounds very labour intensive if you’ve got to take off inches of top soil, spread compost/manure, replace top soil…. I use an alternative easier technique each year with a bean trench and could adopt that for peas. It’s also more easily adopted for any veg grown in containers including potatoes in bags (potatoes tend to ignore and overcome most weeds anyway). Alliums and brassicas are more difficult as they do get overpowered by weeds so perhaps the so-called “honey hole” is the answer there though I don’t know if that’s a technique that works (see below).
The honey-hole technique (I learn from the Internet) is simply a technique of digging a hole, filling with compost/manure up to a few inches below the natural surface level and then topping with replaced soil. That would work well for trees and shrubs and individual plants such as globe artichokes but would get a bit labour intensive for a bed of, say, cauliflowers (which would hate the loosened soil anyway…) But the theory (note, theory!) is that the weather, insects and roots etc will both disperse and find the “honey” (rich nutrients etc) so you stand a chance of reaping the benefits without all the problems of encouraging weeds…. It works on the basis that roots don't take nourishment from the surface (indeed surface watering generally discouraged...) but from several inches down and those inches are sufficient to discourage weed germination.
Is this "honey hole" theory going to work? Any other bright ideas or solutions please? The one thing I’m not going to do this winter is spread home-made compost or manure on the surface or mix it in with topsoil..... Leafmould might be ok for that but not anything with weed seeds because it just creates more work and I'm increasingly allergic to it, particularly weeding.... Suggestions very welcome. Thanks. bb.
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