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Molehills & Turn Feathers into Fertiliser

Two tips to help all gardeners sent in by readers.  The theme is making use of things you might normally see as a problem. The first involves molehills, which drive some gardeners mad. The second is how those who keep poultry can turn a waste product to use.  We’ve not tried all the tips in this section – so if you try a tip, let us know how you got on in the comments box below.

Mole and MolehillWe’re always happy to get comments, tips and even full articles for the site from gardeners: just contact me or pop your tip in on the comments box below.

Molehills in the Garden

Many gardeners almost dance with fury when they see a row of molehills across the lawn or in their border. But if you see a mole hill you should be delighted rather than enraged. Depending where it is of course.

Why? because what you should do is scoop as many mole hills up that you can find. Firstly that will reduce the mess, leaving just a little hole. Secondly, the quality of the soil Mr Mole throws up is generally excellent and fine crumbed.

Make a Potting or Seed Compost

Put the soil into a biscuit tin and pop it into an oven at 200c or 400f for a couple of hours, Let it cool down and be very careful removing it from the oven. What have you got? Lots of lovely loam to form the base of a  John Innes Type Sterile Compost

Thanks to Henry for this tip on using molehills

Turn Feathers into Fertiliser

If you do happen to have a lot of feathers to dispose of then instead of dumping them try the following:-

Put them in a water butt and fill with rain water. Then place a wire grid over them and weigh this down with a couple of bricks.

Keep in shade for around 2 months and you will have a free source of nitrogen. It will become a soft mash which you can place around chosen plants etc. as a slow release mulch. Better than just trying to dump them.

Thanks to Henry for this tip on turning feathers into fertiliser

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