Since owning the Convent, I’ve built many a garden bed. Whilst the nuns had beautiful formal gardens, between the time of them leaving in the ’70s and me purchasing the Convent, all beds had long since been removed. However, one of the great challenges is always access to good soil.

This has meant a great deal of mulching, composting and buying soil. Most of my beds have a basis of fill from leaves, lawn clippings, prunings, kitchen scraps and anything else I can get my hands on. In many areas, I’ve simply just dumped leaves and clippings and let them break down. I’ve also been using two tumbler bins for composting but they’ve been of limited use. They seem dry and the resulting compost is often not well broken down no matter how long I leave it, and the design is poor for getting the compost out.

One win with the recent Cementa Art Festival was a visitor who advised me to use mobile compost bins directly on the ground instead and with a little tweaking, my tumbler bins have been converted to just that and seem to be ideal. This way I can place them in different spots that need composting and move on when time and compost permits. Also physically much easier for me!

I now have four mobile bins and a new composting resolve. Mind you, when the maples drop their leaves, nothing is big enough to handle the abundance. I think the new bed in front of the sunroom will be the main beneficiary.