Homemade compost
I am trying to hatch seeds in front of the window. When the sun shines, it can get quite warm on the windowsill.
So far, my only success is the dill I sowed and the piece of potato that hatched in the cold kitchen, which I cut off and planted. In low temperatures, you have to be patient and cover what you have sown. I sowed the dill in a plastic egg box. Now I have planted aniseed and maggi in it. So far, nothing is happening.
Sowing in the ground is not an option.
Seed is expensive and if the birds don't eat it, it will be overgrown by weeds and then I have nothing. I am thinking of buying a greenhouse but these things are extremely expensive.
Tips on the internet often do not work here. Seeds do not germinate for about 3 days but for 3 weeks. The paprika seeds that I wanted to germinate between some wet kitchen paper on 6 April were already suffering from mould. I sowed a few of them in soil that I had scooped out of the garden. I hope it is not full of weed seeds.
Earlier, I had already started to make a place for the compost heap.
Homemade compost costs nothing although it will take 8 months to 2 years if I may believe the experts. Compost is fertile and retains water well so there is less watering and no need to buy manure. Not that I spend any money on it, I think that is a waste. Besides, I think that with all those trees, the soil can't be too infertile. I don't remove leaves, only big branches and when I cut the grass I leave it, although I can't say the weeds don't grow.
After watching a video on how to quickly fill the compost heap (no I am not going to buy a bin for thos, scroll down to the video I watched) I concluded that I don't have most of it. Like rubbish, I have very little compost not even 1 litre a week. There are no food scraps, I grind eggshells and I keep the ashes from the woodstove for other purposes.
What remains is leaves in the autumn, some pruning and grass when I mow and remove this already.
I don't drink coffee so I don't have used coffee grounds either. After watching the video, I went for a walk to cut reeds. A compost heap needs air so it is best to alternate with layers of reeds or prunings. Then I mowed some higher grass and put it on the heap with some paper. Another time I'll see if I have some cardboard boxes to cover it all up with.
After filling some bags with soil from the garden, I mowed another bit. Now the bit that faces my bedroom window. Here I decided to start another compost heap. There were branches and leaves and after raking it into a corner I threw the cut grass on top. I find it pointless to keep going up and down because all the compost heaps are next to each other. While I was mowing and raking, the ground sprang up under my feet. I think the soil there is now a layer of compost and does not need to be enriched.
Oh I don't know much about this subject but my father @Frankmart and my father-in-law do. You must have a good soil before planting and enough space depending on what you want to plant, if you do not have a good soil, well you have done very well to start researching, that is the first step haha. There will be plants that will ask you for a soil with a lot of fertilizer, others that do not, some plants are demanding with the water others not so much and so they go. Plants need attention, although sometimes it may not seem like it. From what I have seen from my father in law, he has big plants that are always watering leaves all over the soil, so this is part of the fertilizer he uses, not only that, but also the egg shells as you mentioned, and also some vegetable or fruit remains, the small plants that should get sun but not so much go near the big plants, and the plants that should get a lot of sun go separated, you also have to know if you can plant certain plants very close.