Compost heaps-the ideal.

[Trailoftears]

The one positive thing I would say about cats,is just occasionally you come across an expert mole catcher-they have the guile and patience it seems.On another note-what gives with moles?NOTHING eats them-the cats wont,nothing picks them up when I toss them into neighbouring fields or place them prominently on Farm posts,so that rules out birds/foxes etc Their b.o. presumably makes mine seem a trifling issue 😁

[nepia]

One of our two mogs is a mole catcher; she had three last year, all from the garden.

 

Bless her but I wish she'd leave the blue tits and wrens alone; she's even had a couple of goldcrest in her time 😡

Thankfully she's calmed down with age so we're actually nowadays talking about half a dozen birds a year but nesting season is upon us with fledglings to follow...

She actually had one yesterday but was soft mouthed enough to release it unharmed when shouted at; did the same once with a fledgling nuthatch

[Botty Cough]

10 hours ago, Doug Tait said:

I like the constant presence approach.

Secreted somewhere in the protected zone, with steady breath and acutely tuned ears for the first signs of an intruder. Patient, until the moment they tread reasonably close and you take the opportunity, erupting from your hide, no weapon except the element of surprise and a sheer will to give the bugger the fright of its life. As it disappears into the hedge in fear of auld nick himself, you stomp hard with your last few strides to emphasise your victory. You'll strut for a while but inevitably your mind will turn to the next engagement.

Granted it's time consuming but it does work..

I find also this works but rather than myself I deploy the resident Spanish attack agent 😁

 

"He is trained on command of "go f*#k it up" 😁...

Here is the "agent" on  patrol....

 

[Steven P]

On topic.... I'll often mow autumn leaves - collects them up and mulches them (same with sticks twigs, broccoli stems, windfalls, saw dust.... the mower was cheap enough to eventually trash but £100 from B&Q si surprisingly resistant)

 

I'd do the cats as well... Australian rules only work if you can catch them in the act, otherwise "You own a cat, this is cat poo, so it was your cat" doesn't work - same with hiding (neighbours cat will scarper pretty quick if it sees me). Passive, the best I found for my neighbours was the electronic cat scarer. I'd love to be able to program a little computer, image recognition for cats and perhaps a spray gun

[sandspider]

You can get pir triggered cat squirters that hook up to a hosepipe. Work well in my experience  and very satisfying! But you have to move them or the cats get used to their locations and avoid them.

[Trailoftears]

Trying to stay on topic 😉,he says being possibly the worst offender-and leaving cats alone-for now.As I was taught/understand it.Leaf mold is virtually nutrient-free.BUT,when it's 'right' and resembles friable peat is actually the perfect sowing compost-its as near as dammit sterile/weed-free.Also,in the literal sense,if you have the aged heaps-it is truly free!Ok,given its lack of nutrients-you need to move your germinated plants out reasonably quickly.But frankly,given the appalling 'quality' of some of the peat free composts on the market-at least you are getting a consistent medium-I wish I could say the same about some of the products being passed off as 'compost' in garden centres!As to home produced compost heaps-again,pretty low in nutrients and I wouldn't use it in say,seed composts.But IF its been processed/cooked properly it should be fine as a surface/dig in border mulch.The Gold standard of course is premium well-rotted f.y.m.Say aged/covered product from horses bedded with straw-hemp is ok but inferior to straw.Apparently,even the finest f.y.m. is suprisingly nutrient poor.Say,1.1.2. at best.BUT,the value lies in the fact its nutrient value is released slowly-almost the perfect match for most veg/plants ideal scenario.So unlike flinging growmore/chem.fertilisers about you are feeding plants gently and consistently over a growing season-this avoids the sudden quick fix of feed that molluscs/pests absolutely adore,also soft wet growth is more susceptible to even slightly lower overnight temps too.

[sime42]

Some good points there. Regarding leaf mould; given that it's such great stuff, why isn't it produced commercially? I've never seen it for sale at least. There must be a market for it. Especially with the shocking stuff that passes for compost these days.

 

 

[difflock]

I gathered up the leafmould from below the Hawthorn hedge I planted some years ago, what pleasently surprised me was how weed free it was, beneath the canopy, and how unbeliavebly friable the topsoil was beneath it. I used it to mulch the two planted out C.I. baths in the front porch area. 1 Ameralis about to flower with more coming. The humidity in the 2 story high space is astounding btw, and mostly all coming from transpiration(I can only presume). BUT if I were considering raised beds for veg outside, I would be using the leafmould bigtime.

[NJA]

I've got a bin made from pallets and just build a new one every year or so.  Fill it with grass, leaves, kitchen waste, wood ash etc.  Once its full i dig it out mixing with wood chip as i go.

Dug it in before planting bareroot hornbeam hedge, which took off like crazy so cant have been too bad?  Haven't got a secret recipe just always mixed in as much different stuff as poss

Definitely not potting compost but great to dig in beds/before planting hedging etc. 

[Trailoftears]

19 hours ago, sime42 said:

Some good points there. Regarding leaf mould; given that it's such great stuff, why isn't it produced commercially? I've never seen it for sale at least. There must be a market for it. Especially with the shocking stuff that passes for compost these days.

 

 

It is odd,its beautiful stuff to handle-friable,clean and near as dammit weed-free.Pre-sieved,its spot on for cell production.

Also,another niche compost that would work-bracken compost for acid-lovers.I've always thought the very idea of a 'multi-purpose' compost is absolutely ludicrous.How on earth can it work for say,seed sowing/potting on young seedlings with low nutrient requirements,but on the other hand be suitable for mature stuff that needs the equivalent of J.I.no3-heavy nutrient level?The obvious answer is it can't-its simply not possible.Thats why the J.I.institute went to the trouble and research to develop 4 discrete products-seed/1/2 and 3 composts.