Achieved April 2022 and ongoing …. The five-bay shed is now constructed. Our thanks to Ray and others. Made from reused timber, roofing (from a dismantled shed) and old pallets it is almost entirely a recycled piece of architecture.  We have collected leaves, mowings, horse & cow manure, woodchip and  tidied old plant matter into piles.  We aim to create a balance of ‘brown’ and ‘green’ compostable, organic, material in ‘lasagne’ layers. 

We should produce enough of our own nutrient-rich compost to add a thick layer of goodness to our 60+ ‘No Dig’ beds each year.  The perfect circular system that supports soil health and biodiversity. 

We have been following the guidance of Charles Dowding and we are also blessed to have links with the Faversham-based, ‘joyful composting’ duo: Amy Poole and Jess Martin of heartandsoilcommunity . Look out for Joyful Composting workshops and composting events at LCKG from 2023 onwards.

Heart and Soil Community kindly gave us a wormery housed in a big tub with some air holes and a lid. This will allow us to start vermicomposting (composting with worms). This uses Epigeic, surface dwelling worms. These special composting worms (often called Brandling worms, Tiger worms or Red Wigglers) reproduce quickly and have some of the biggest worm appetites - eating up to 1⁄4-1⁄3 of their body weight in kitchen scraps per day.

The worms produce waste themselves, known as castings, which we can harvest as some of the most nutritious plant and soil food around. We plan to add these castings to our compost to enrich it (1:10 ratio) and to experiment with making a ‘vermi-tea’ with the castings. This tea extract solution can then be added in small amounts to a watering can full of water and used on the plants.