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I know this may sound silly but does fertilising the soil have to be an expensive business? i used a years worth of compost on my smallest bed yesterday! what do other people do? how much compost do u generate in a year? not really feeling the idea of buying in compost cos kinda defeats the purpose and although we do get some farmyard manure delivered to the lottie at this time of year its a bit of an unreliable source! (i.e. not here yet, when i need it!)

does anyone use green manures much? i've got loads of seed but worried its too late now (should have done it earlier i know but i forgot!)

Get a comfrey bed going. Add the comfrey to your compost bin, place the leaves as mulch around your veg, make a brew of comfrey and nettle (weeing in the bucket also helps) and water your plants with it, feed it to your chickens etc who turn it to manure....... I am sure there are lots of other uses for comfrey......

Sorry never felt the need for green manure, we used to get chicken manure pellets or free horse manure from the local riding stables.

I was thinking that i could get duckweed growing in a small pool of water and just keep removing a third every time it got full. I understand that it grows very fast but dont know if it would work for fertiliser.

If you've got the seeds chuck 'em on anyway. You can dig them in in early spring.

But be careful about what you're using for if you rotate your crops.

I'm wary of green manures, I've had fairly negative experiences. If left for any length of time they becoming a cover for weeds that go unnoticed. Some can also be quite difficult to eradicate. Mustard for short periods over summer seems ok and Rye and Tares mixture over winter is not too bad.
If relying on your own compost, I think it is inevitable that you have to grow your own to some extent, as others have said comfrey and nettles are great, don't forget mowing the grass is great also!

Not an instant fix - but this the perfect time of year to start making your own leaf mould. Bag or pile up autumn leaves and leave to rot down.

Do a web search for the method and note that some leaves such as oak and alder break down much quicker than others. It takes about a year to break down.

We have a couple of the plastic dalek type bins and a few general heaps at various stages of decomposition. When we were making raised beds, we used a mix of cheap bagged compost, farmyard manure, home made compost and topsoil - but I know what you mean, it can be a pricey exercise!

On your next trip to the seaside, bring a carrier bag of seaweed back to add to your comfrey/nettle tea. And if there's any of the dreaded horsetail about chuck some of that in as well. Heaven for your plants - smells awful though!

I wish I had the dreaded horsetail as it is a natural blight remedy which is better than using Bordeaux mix.

However compost and particularly leaf mould are not the same thing as fertiliser. I buy a bag of organic fertiliser which is just about enough for my veg patch and it costs about €15, then I need another one for the flower beds and fruit trees. I wouldn't worry about organic for the flower beds but as the ducks ate lots of the leaf mould plus fertiliser than I put in the flower beds I worry about them eating the cheap blue granule stuff!

Home made compost does contain some nutrients, muck obviously is much higher in nutrients but leaf mould contains hardly anything. However all these three are great for improving the soil structure and retaining moisture.

I haven't yet decided what works best for me. However, some techniques that people here use are:
- Gather seaweed. After storms, people go down to the beach and gather buckets of seaweed to dig in or top-dress their gardens.
- Green manure. Because seaweed is low in nitrogen, people plant a green manure like rye or clover to grow over the winter.
- Mulch with straw. Due to living in a rain forest area, beating back the jungle of weeds is a major problem. So, people mulch their beds with straw to keep the weeds down. Yes, it costs money to buy the straw, but it is dual-purpose: the bottom layer of straw decomposes and becomes compost in place. You just keep adding more stray on top.
- Mulch with leaves. It serves the same anti-weed purpose as a straw mulch and also decomposes well over winter.

I'll send you some, MMM. Be careful what you wish for

thanks folks! so gonna do a bit of everything i can, but avoiding spending any money at all! wish i had a car sometimes cos would make lugging manure about a bit easier (don't think people would much appreciate me getting on a bus with it hehe). want manure though. and prospects for long term fertilising might be an option. will give tares and clover a go cos i think thats what i bought.

Make yourself a wormery from an old bin or bucket. You can chuck all your food waste into it. Drain off the liquid as a fertiliser and use the contents as compost.

I have two, one is an old dustbin with a water butt tap in the bottom. Once that's full (after about 6 months) it gets turned out into an old water butt and mixed with chicken bedding (straw, grass clippings, shredded paper and chicken manure). After a further six months, that lot gets emptied out onto the vegetable patch adding loads of new worms into the soil.

Cheers
Zoe

I used to be able to collect the 'used' sea weed from our local t€$co's but they use plastic stuff these days. The sea is a day's drive from here, but hopefully I'll be a bit nearer a beach after the move.

MW

i've been using bokashi for a year now and its brilliant, breaks down really quickly, but as theres only 2 (and a half!) of us perhaps we dont produce that much waste. doesnt help that i've got a whole plot (and a half!) to fertilise!

How about asking your local green grocer for spoilt stuff? We get 'bunny bags' for 10p a go. They are a carrier bagfull of outer leaves, over-ripe fruit, bendy carrots etc. Can't hurt to ask.

MW