All about Compost

Here are Alice and Barney, making compost with weeds and the old woody stems of perennial plants, cut back to let the new fresh growth come through. Making compost is absolutely central to what we do at Stokesay Flowers. The principal of our business is to tread lightly on the world, growing large quantities of glorious, romantic flowers in a natural-feeling garden setting. Unlike with the standard field grown model, we do not use irrigation, and we do not plant into long sheets of thick black plastic. It goes without saying that we also do not use chemicals to grow our plants or to treat our flowers once they are cut.

In order for the garden to be able to support high levels of productivity, we need to keep feeding the soil every year with a thick layer of organic material, and the very best we’ve found is compost made in our own gardens. The compost ‘mulch’, spread over the surface of the ground in spring or autumn, helps to conserve moisture in the soil, smothers weeds, and is slowly worked into the soil during the course of the year by worms and other little beasties to improve its texture and increase its nutrient value. It’s the best thing we can do for our gardens, and it is why everything that comes out of them is so full of vitality and beautiful health.