Fifty Year Memories

When I was a lad, we moved from Liverpool to urban Whiston, my amazing grandfather, Jack Edwards, a keen woodworker and gardener, built several structures in the large garden, and one he introduced me to, and encouraged me to be involved with, was the compost heap.

Last March we built a similar structure in our yard, and today, a year and a bit later, the benefit of the compost heap is apparent. On the right hand side, two thirds of a yard of very good soil, on the left hand side, currently being processed, probably almost a third of a yard of good soil (packed with worms) and the top layer, which will be rotated to the bottom over the next week.

The wall of good soil, about a foot thick, can be seen on the left hand side, similar to the wall of muck that I would dig into almost five decades ago while helping my granddad.