Waste, Water and Wellies

So now I am twiddling my thumbs, I want to mark out the beds in the allotment but have decided not to until the greenhouse is up. I have also decided to have pea shingle paths around all of the beds so you get that satisfying crunching sound as you walk around. While I am waiting to do that I needed something else to get on with. 

I have been throwing away all of my kitchen waste since we moved here as the local authority don’t do green waste. Such a shame as my last was very good at that sort of thing. Compost is definitely the way ahead , so a last week it was internet research time again. I needed something to make compost in and a very large water butt. 

Jim found an excellent website which seemed to do the job

http://www.hants.getcomposting.com/Shop/Composters.html

So after a bit of debate 2 Blackwall 330 litre compost converter kits and a 190 litre rain-saver water butt kit were duly ordered. 

Now the wait for delivery. Our house has become a bit of a white van magnet since we moved here. We have embraced the use of internet ordering and not much that arrives here, has not arrived via a wifi link. The neighbors must be wondering what we are doing, we bought so much stuff from our last house that didn't fit here, so it all arrived on a removal lorry and over the last few week its been leaving again via Ebay and Freecyle. 

Slightly off topic but I must include a quick plug for Freecyle.

If you don't know what it is have a look at  http://www.freecycle.org/ . Its basically a place to give away and get stuff for free, and its not rubbish! we have recently acquired a rather nice petrol lawnmower and we gave away all of the packing materials that we used to move here.  Our local group is going to be very useful as there is always the offer of a steaming pile of horse manure. In fact so useful that Jim has bought a small trailer to collect it in. He is off to collect the trailer in an hour or so after he has had his toast. 

Right, back on topic. A few days ago the expected white van arrived outside. The company made a bit of a mistake and only sent one composter so a quick phone call and a promise of another white van sometime this week was made. 

The Composter and Water butt now stand expectantly next to the bamboo stake  greenhouse waiting to receive their contents. Typically, as I planned to set up the compost bin yesterday, it poured with rain, the first real rain since we moved here and of course the water butt was not able to collect water.

Those observant readers will have noticed that this blog is called Waste, Water and Wellies. So what about the Wellies. I didn't have any, and as I think they are an essential piece of allotment kit, a sunday afternoon trip out to get some was in order. 

Off we went yesterday afternoon to SCATS countrystore. The array of wellies was quite impressive. I have never been much of a designer girl, (except for my handbag collection) but I fell for the rather smart Barbour Green Wellies straight away. I convinced myself that I didn't need fancy wellies, a nice cheap practical pair would do, so the Barbour's went back and I wandered round looking for another pair. None were as comfortable, so 20 minutes later we left with the Barbour Wellies. They now sit sparkling by the back door waiting for their first trip down the garden later today  when once again I hope to set up the compost bin.