Woolly Benefits

Pushkinia

Primroses

Wild daffodils

My favourite spring flowers this week are the primroses, which have started to come seriously into flower and will go on flowering for weeks, the pushkinia, which is rather like a pale scilla and makes a noticeable splash of pale colour and perhaps best of all the wild daffodils (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) with their subtle yellows -  which used to grow in the woods where I lived in Hertfordshire. They have taken to my garden here.  

 Last week I planted  two new blueberry bushes. They are in the same bed as the cordon fruit trees and raised because, although the soil in my garden is on the acid side, I wanted to give them some unquestionably acid compost of their own. They are self fertile but the advice is to have two different varieties to ensure lots of fruit so I've chosen 'Hortblue Petite' and 'Pink Sapphire' (which will have pink berries).  I hope I will be able to keep them clipped to the sizes I want. So far  they look contented in their new beds. 

Two beds made of bamboo edging to hold the ericaceous compost that blueberries require. I expect to grow low plants round them so they will not be quite so blatantly obvious. 

The search for peat-free ericaceous soil for the blueberries got me thinking about compost in general.  Wool has begun to take on an important role in my garden and wool based compost is an excellent alternative to peat-based composts.

I've been using strips of wool insulation (used to protect some of my food orders) as winter protection for my less-than-hardy plants. They are enveloped in a looks-like-plastic covering that can  be composted at home. I've also come to rely on wool slug deterrent pellets called Slug Gone  which  work very well if used as advised and then disintegrate and become part of the soil. 

Slug Gone pellets made of sheep's wool

Now I've discovered sheep's wool compost. And if farmers are looking for alternative ways to make money from their sheep, I hope they will  remember that we gardeners are desperately looking for alternatives to peat. The compost I buy is made by a farm in the Lake District called Dalefoot. According to its website, Dalefoot composts are made from the wool of their two rare breeds of hill sheep,  Whitefaced Woodland and Cheviot - and bracken.  (The bracken is invasive and not much good for anything else so this is a good use for it.)

Dalefoot compost bagged and loose. It has a pleasant, loose texture, a pleasure to use

The sheep have for centuries spent their lives out of doors summer and winter and their wool is long, shaggy, coarse and insulating. There are several composts made of  various mixtures of wool and bracken - no peat - made according to what they describe as 'an old gardening recipe'.  The compost will steadily release nutrients including lanolin, nitrogen, potassium, sodium, iron and phosphorus and when used as a mulch will keep the ground warm in winter and cool in summer, while retaining moisture. It is Soil Association Approved. 

Whitefaced Woodland

                  Cheviot 

Whitefaced Woodland

                   Cheviot

Dalefoot composts are sold by various different retailers. Their own website is: www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk