How to make a hot bed
Great use of sweetcorn stalks...
As they are so thick they take longer to break down in compost bins, you would need to chop or shred in to smaller pieces really, lots of us have been taking them home to our green wheelie bins instead.
However - Saw Esther do this last year and forgot to take pictures, so took some yesterday - she creates a 'Hot bed'!
A planting bed is dug out to a depth of about a foot, the soil is piled up around the side of the bed, and all the sweetcorn stalks are laid in the pit to fill it. In fact all the remains of the sweetcorn harvest go in.Then the soil that was dug out is placed back on top of the plant remains to cover the bed, and then compost from the compost bin or manure placed on top, so you have a raised bed of soil over the planting bed approx 1ft.
This is left to settle, and topped up with compost as and when, while the sweetcorn stems rot away underneath and create heat over time.
Thick stalks of brassicas could be used too, and as Esther has chickens at home, she adds some chicken muck in there too. (You could maybe add some rotted horse manure that is available free from Marquis farm if you dig/collect it yourself.)
Then in late spring, you sow your sweetcorn seeds direct into the soil - and whoooosh! Bumper crop 🙂
🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽
Last years raised bed which grew an amazing crop of sweetcorn was being sown with lots of onions and garlic yesterday - imagine they will be a bumper crop too as still benefiting from all the good muck below 🌱
Give it a try - a nice autumn project to warm you up!
Freshly prepared hot bed.
Was admiring this lovely old well used gardening tool - a 4 pronged cultivator... freshly used to prep the soil for planting the onion and garlic sets :) Have only seen a 3 pronged one before!
Same hotbed in March, planted with garlic.
Hotbed in April.