COMPOSTING AT ASHLYNS

Composting is an entirely natural process that essentially breaks down organic material into something that is of benefit to plants.

Here at TJ Composting’s site at Ashlyns Farm, we take green garden trimmings (essentially everything from grass cuttings, hedge trimmings to small branches etc) that people have taken from their gardens to their local tip to use as our input material to make compost.  Essex County Council’s Contractor Veolia run the local tips (better described as HWRS or Household Waste Recycling Centres) and they try to ensure the garden trimmings people bring are free of plastic and other non compostable rubbish, then once the bin is full of green they bring the green here, usually 2 bins at a time on a road train, this helps to minimise transport miles.

Once it is tipped out on site we have a further sort out to pick out any plastic, as you can see there is still some but remember it is “naughty people” who don’t take the plastic out when they bring their green to the tip, so please remember it is much easier to take plastic out when you have one bag in the back of your car than when we end up with 50 tonnes on site!

Once we have sorted the material as best we can, we then shred it with a powerful 480HP machine that smashes it all up; this is then formed into a large pile called a windrow.  Within 2 or 3 days the windrow reaches some 65 to 70 degrees Celsius.  The windrows are turned several times over a 10 to 12 week period, then stockpiled before being screed to 35mm.  The screening process ensures the compost is free of large stones plastic etc and is then suitable for spreading across the fields.

The compost produced is high in organic matter and has good amounts of NPK as well as trace elements and is applied at some 50 tonnes per hectare.  Plants do grow better with the addition of compost and it also has the dual benefit of increasing the water holding capacity of the soil as well as improving the structure and therefore drainage.

All the compost on the site is used on the farm.  As an organic farm not using pesticides or artificial fertilisers it is the principal source of fertility for our crops.