Our Little Farm

Nine Acres of Heaven

Toilet bin with car tyre on top cooking nicely

Comfrey bed full of summer goodness

Comfrey leaves used for planting potatoes

Humus rich compost from the plastic bins

Worms working the toilet bin

Composting and Comfrey

We make our own compost from weeds, green waste from the kitchen, egg shells, cardboard, shredded paper, comfrey. toilet waste and farm manure, to produce barrow loads of humus rich organic matter.

Compost Loo

We have a compost toilet and each time we use the loo we add a handful of sawdust to the bucket. This keeps the waste smell free and also absorbs the urine. Each week this loo waste is added to its own separate compost bin shown at right. As one bin finishes we start another and add a layer of bracken straw in the bottom and a four inch layer of finished loo waste from the old bin which contains most of the composting worms.The waste takes six months to break down, but we usually leave it for 18 months by which time it is a crumbly dry compost similar to peat. As we add the waste, week by week, the worms multiply at a fantastic rate and munch their way through the waste enriching the compost with worm casts. Each bin measures 4’x4’ and lasts two people 18 months. Before we added worms to the process the bin only lasted 9 months. The finished compost is then added to the garden and the plants love it .

Comfrey

We started with one Bocking 14 Russian comfrey plant 20 years ago and all the rest have come by digging and sub dividing the t roots each winter. The comfrey bed is at the top of the garden and contains 50 plants. A further 50 are planted in a bed at the farm for the pigs. The comfrey bed gives three crops a year. As the plants grow tall they develop deep purple flowers which the bees and butterflies love. We then cut the bed with a sickle down to about eight inches above ground once the bees and butterflies have had a go at the flowers. The resulting harvest is a huge heap of tall chunky stems, leaves and flowers. Comfrey is naturally rich in potassium and if added to the soil breaks down without robbing nitrogen, so is great for adding the leaves to potatoes or around fruit trees. We also produce our own comfrey liquid feed. This is easy to make in a water butt with a tap. The comfrey stems are placed in a sack and this is lowered into a butt full of water. The comfrey breaks down and the pungent smelling liquid is ready in about four weeks. The potatoes and tomatoes love this nitrogen rich feed. We compost the comfrey in two 4’x4’ wooden bins and seven plastic compost bins like the ones seen at right. By layering with paper and weeds a rich compost is produced.

Worns

We bought a Can o Worms to compost the kitchen scraps. As well as producing worms casts which gardeners know as black gold, it also gives a large quantity of worm tea, which makes a brilliant liquid feed. The worms breed very quickly so we have always had enough for all our other compost bins.

Urine

We save our urine each night and add this as an activator to the compost bins and to the comfrey bed.