Storm Gerrit

The wind speed record for 2023 - as recorded in our back garden by my Davis Weather Station - was recently set at 56 km/h during Storm Pia (December 20th - 21st). A few days later that record was smashed by Storm Gerrit (December 28th) with a wind gust measured at 61 km/h!!! (Figure 1).Figure...

Hot Composting - The Importance of Aeration

While tending my HotBin compos bin over the Christmas holidays, I was reminded of the importance of compost aeration. I'll come to that in a moment but, first, I thought I should give a quick recap of the 'ingredients' needed for the successful hot composting of garden waste:A population of micro-organisms...

When Doing the Bare Minimum Never Seems Quite Enough

 Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru) has been doing some essential public works in the surrounding streets that included digging up roads and pavements. They worked diligently and reinstated the roads to something like their original condition. This involved using a minimum amount of yellow paint (Photo 1)...

Storm Pia

Storm Pia, named by the Danish Met Office, hit the UK on December 20th - 21st. Fortunately, Herefordshire was on the edge of the warning zone and escaped the most damaging winds.Video 1: Storm Pia viewed from the Rear GardenVideo 2: Robin in a Spin (Storm Pia)Video 3: Scudding Clouds (Storm Pia)Checking...

Cat Deterrent

 Photo 1: Neighbour's Cat has Spotted Something in the Tree We are surrounded by cats and, presumably, cat owners. We are not keen on felines though we would not wish them any harm. They are useful as mousers (I've disposed of two dead rats found in the kitchen garden) but they are always...

Hot Composting - A Cover Up?

 Photo 1: HotBin next to Conventional Garden ComposterThere are three main reasons why you should hot compost your garden and kitchen waste using, for example, a HotBin:to speed up the multi-year composting processto kill off weeds and pathogensto allow cooked food, including meat, to be composted...

A Winter Stew from the Kitchen Garden

 Saturday 9th December 2023 was a funny old day weather-wise (Figure 1). Up to and including the 11th December, it was the warmest day of the month reaching a high of 13 ℃ between 10.30 am and 12 noon. There was also plenty of sunshine (green) especially between 10.30 am and 2.30 pm and plenty...

Frosty Days are Here Again

 Figure 1: Minimum Daily Temperatures (November 8th - December 7th 2023)In our Hereford garden, the first air frost (temperature < 0 ℃) of this winter arrived at thirty minutes past midnight on the morning of the 25th November. Figure 1 displays the minimum daily temperatures between the 8th...

A Hot Composting Saga (Part 6) - Draughtproofing

 I was doing a bit of admin and realised I hadn't completed this series of posts. See here for Part 5 and links to the earlier articles. This is the final one on this particular topic though there will be plenty of future posts on hot composting.To bring you quickly up-to-date, I have three hot...