The happiness of a job, well done..

... is what keeps me bouncing out of bed, in the mornings!

This is the sort of thing which fills me with pride: one of my Clients didn't have any compost pens - I know,  I know, shocking:  so I drew them some plans, they got their handyman in, he did a pretty good job, and lo! and behold, we started composting.

When people are new to composting, it can take a little while to get into the swing of it: and one of the major obstacles is them not knowing which pen to fill.

So I made them a sign:

There you go!

It is just, quite literally, a piece of scrap wood which we can hang on the relevant pen, with the words "FILL ME" written on it, in felt pen.

It won't last forever, but should manage a couple of years, and by then, they will be able to remember the routine.

The trick, with new composting folks, is to make it clear that once we have filled one particular pen, we let it rot down, and we don't go back to it.

There is always a temptation, on their part, to see that the contents are sinking, and to think "Great! We can pile a bit more on top of that one!" but if they do, we could be filling that same pen for another six months, and we therefore won't be able to get any good "stuff" out of it, for even longer. It is far better to let each pen rot down in turn. If you need to know more about this, I have written about compost a ton of times, so just type "compost" into the search box, top left of the screen, and have a good read!

 

Here's another set of compost pens which I built - and I quite literally built this lot myself, helped by one of my Trainees.

Yes, they are as big as they look - it was a very big garden.

And there's another of my home-made "FILL ME" signs, this one has been in operation for several years now and is still going strong, although I have had to go over the writing a couple of times. 

One day I'll get around to working out the best way to make them more permanent - I've tried engraving (untidy finish and sounded far too much like being at the dentist), and pyrography (couldn't get sufficient difference in colour for it to be worthwhile) and ended up with a good old Sharpie:; the next time I make one, I'll try some varnish, perhaps that might increase the lifespan of the wording.

But in the meantime, the felt-pen ones seem to be doing the job, and the correct pens are being filled.

So proud!

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