Compost direct from the farm

Peat free compost from Agripost

Agripost is a composting business based at Lower House Farm in the village of Cardeston, Shropshire (it lies near Ford on the main road between Shrewsbury and Welshpool).

The farmer runs a large scale commercial composting operation alongside traditional farming practices. They take green waste from local businesses and local councils and 'recycle' it into a peat-free compost that can be used for gardening, landscaping and farming purposes.

Agripost is a local composting operation processing thousands of tonnes of green garden waste from surrounding areas. They conform to the strict regimes laid down by the Environmental Agency and their WRAP Protocol and produce a PAS100 certified compost which means it can be sold. 

Although they have enough land to easily spread all the compost on their own farm they do very occasionally have (wholesale amounts only) of compost for sale on request.  Please note - they don't however sell small quantities of compost to individual residents - this is for large scale commercial contractors who want to buy literally tonnes of the stuff by the trailer load only. 

For those of you who are interested, general enquirers should contact  

Agripost - Telephone (01743) 821226

www.agripost.co.uk 

Can I add worms to my compost heap?

Worms are worms - right? They're all the same - right? WRONG!  Although many people assume that worms are all the same there are actually around 28 species of worm in the UK alone!


So collecting up earth worms from around your garden and adding them to your compost heap is not really helping - they are the wrong type of worm.  The worms you want in your compost heap are not earth worms but specialist red worms and tiger worms which have huge appetites and specialise on eating rotting food and organic material. 

You see all worms live in different depths of soil, and are grouped into three main categories. Deep, Shallow and leaf litter.  The most common one you find in the garden are the deep burrowers known as Lob worms - these guys do not want to be in a hot sweating rotting compost heap and if you put them in they will (if they even survive the ordeal) try to get out, they like to live in cool deep dark soil.

The ones you want are the one who specialise in living in rotting leaves, manure heaps and compost heaps. These worms are often red in colour and much thinner than Lob / Earth worms.  The 3 main species of worms you want for composting are :-

•Red Worm (Eisenia andrei) also known as red wrigglers

•Tiger Worm (Eisenia fetida) also known as brandlings / Manure Worms

•Dendrobaena (Eisenia hortensis) also known as Dendras / European Nightcrawler

Red worms as their name suggests are red and the same size as the Tiger Worm (around 5 cm's) Tiger worms and Dendrobaena are very similar to look at as they are both stripy, however Dendras are twice the size and fatter (around 10 cm's long).

So the official advice from our Master Composters is no - do not add worms to your heap - simply place your compost heap on bare soil and you will attract all the (appropriate) worms that you need - once the heap is mature and cool enough for them. 

Shrewsbury commercial composting site investment

Shropshire farming and composting business Agripost Ltd. (who process all your garden waste) are making sustainability a top priority on their mixed farming unit in Cardeston near Shrewsbury.  The farm already acts as the central hub for the Councils garden waste collection and processes up to 15,000 tonnes of green waste every year helping to reduce landfill and make a high quality compost to spread on their land. 

Now the growing local business has erected a 50kW wind turbine on site to add to the existing biomass boiler and 200kW solar (PV) array mounted on the roofs of their poultry units.

Farmer & Managing Director, Mark Gethin said “The overall power needs of the poultry unit is some 300,000kw per annum. The solar panels provide approximately half of this, depending on the amount of daylight, sunshine and season. The proposed wind turbine will generate between 144,000 to 170,000 kw per year and in particular will generate electricity in winter and at night when the poultry units are net users of non PV energy.  The size of the wind turbine was chosen deliberately to generate the shortfall in renewable energy and for the first time will mean we are effectively self sufficient in power as a farm business” 

“We are aiming to become carbon neutral on the farm and the turbine investment is another way for us to generate our own electricity, complementing the solar panels perfectly.  We are also building an in-vessel composting facility to allow us to also compost food waste along side the green waste and an anaerobic digester to process food waste, slurry and chicken litter” he added

Bucknell Parish Litter Pickers

Primary tabsesidents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.

Residents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.  The group are making using new equipment from local Herefordshire-based manufacturers Helping Hand Ltd. purchased using a grant from Shropshire Councils Local Joint Committe.

The group of volunteers are part of the 'Bedstone and Bucknell Good Neighbours' group, formed to keep their community free of litter and rubbish. The recieved a grant of £150 from the LJC to purchase bags, gloves, litter pickers and fluorescent jackets to help them keep safe and clean whilst doing their work. Once the litter is collected by the volunteers its then picked up by Shropshire Councils Street Cleansing Service and then disposed of professionally through our contract with Veolia.

Its fanstastic to see people who care about their environment making a real difference and lets hope it inspires other people across Shropshire to follow their lead.  If you want to get involved contact the Council directly.  We can provide expert advice, equipment and support with all aspects of collecting and disposing of litter if you want to help us keep Shropshire tidy. 

Scrappies crafts & recycling

Scrappies (Crafts and Recycling) By Alan Stewart (Master Composter)
 

I’ve found that a great and inexpensive way to entertain my 4 year old daughter Isla is to take her to Scrappies (crafts & recycling) in Church Stretton. We like to make it a whole day out by catching the train to Church Stretton (itself an exciting activity for a 4 year old!) and also letting off some steam with a play in the park before heading home.   The play park in Church Stretton is a particularly good one.

Scrappies is a charity; their team of volunteers collects surplus products from factories, shops and businesses.  These are then sorted, bagged and stocked in the scrapstore located in Church Stretton town centre.  It is a fantastic place to pick up extremely cheap materials for any child’s craft activity: fabric off-cuts, buttons, scraps of paper and card, plastic bottles, pots, lids, books, ribbons, foam and foil.  They also sell new craft resources including paints, glue, crayons, pens, clay, tissue paper, feathers etc…

Isla loves rummaging around for things and imagining what she can make with them.  She has particularly enjoyed, for instance, having her own ‘diary’ to scribble in (actually a 2012 diary - but she is none the wiser!!), which we picked up for a few pence.  To make your craft activities even easier, and in case you are needing inspiration, they also have a selection of make-your-own kits such as peg dolls and puppets which have been put together by Scrappies volunteers from the materials available in the store.

I am told that a new ‘Crafty Kids’ craft club is starting on Saturday mornings 10—12am from January as a drop in session, which we will definitely be heading to!  Scrappies craft workers can also be booked for activity tents, events and birthday parties to run creative activities for children and families.

Scrappies are not open every day of the week so do check their website first: www.scrappies.org or contact via: info@scrappies.org or by phone (during opening hours) on 01694 722 511.

Wiggly Wigglers

We’re really fortunate to have 'green' businesses based in our area such as Wiggly Wigglers who are based out of the lovely Lower Blakemere Farm in rural Herefordshire. They started out as a small farm enterprise and used to operate from the farmhouse itself but such is their success and the increased interest in green gardening products that, as Wiggly Wigglers expanded (thanks to you all), they’ve outgrown the house and now they work in several of the farm’s outbuildings, which have been converted for life in the twenty-first century. 

They’ve also transformed the old walled garden into a wildlife haven where we are able to showcase many of the products that we sell, so that visitors can see their philosophy in action.  The company takes its name from the worm breeding side of the business and the fact that you can buy specialist worms and wormeries for home composting your food waste.  However they can mail order a much wider range of products that just wormeries these days - including everything you need for a green garden from British wildflower seeds, to bird food, water butts, compost bins, and much more besides.

To see their product range and support this local business visit www.wigglywigglers.co.uk

Christmas tree recycling 2014

Did you know? In the UK we get through almost 8 million real Christmas trees every year!

We estimate therefore that there must be about 60,000 dead Christmas trees left over in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin this January 2014! Please don't let them go to waste. 

You can compost them at home but its quite a challenge for most of us with small back gardens, so the lazy option to recycle real Christmas trees simply by putting them out for collection along with your garden waste or taking them to the local tip.  All real Christmas trees collected will get sent for commercial composting on local farms where they are shredded and rotted down to be turned into a valuable soil improver for local farmers.

Don't forget - remove any tinsel and other decorations first!