News Archive (before 2020)

Dec 28, 2019

 

  • A HAPPY CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY and note we are closed on 28th DECEMBER

    The site will be closed for a Christmas Holiday on Saturday 28th December.
    A VERY HAPPY Christmas and all our best wishes for NEW YEAR 2020. Start a new decade with new hope, much mulching and love for the soil, keeping your gardens and cosy with your home compost – and of course ours too ! and even more warmth with our stunning leaf mould !

  • Making Seed Compost workshop

  • Making your own seed compost was a fun focus of a Master Composter’s workshop at DeerPark School Cirencester in early November. Mix one third horticultural grit/sand, with one third compost or loam, with one third of BCCS gorgeous leaf mould and you have a medium in which to grow your vegetables. Teenage horticultural students from DeerPark school planted Aquadulce Broad Beans. They will grow overwinter producing an early crop of Broad Beans in the spring.

  • Oakridge Parochial School LOVE Life in the Soil!

    Hazel Saunders and Lesley Greene of Bisley Community Composting Scheme led a composting workshop with 29 young people of Oakridge Primary school (the whole school) . Helped by wonderful staff – including Bisley’s Di Chapman pictured – and parents the children built two compost bins, learned how compost is made, and identified microscopic creatures in the soil. Oakridge Parochial Primary School’s allotment on the Bisley-with-Lypiatt Parish Council Allotments in Oakridge is a dedicated learning space where the children find out about growing their own food, local wildlife, and caring for the environment. Hazel and Lesley are Master Composters, a scheme organised by Garden Organic and Gloucestershire County Council, supporting and campaigning for home composting, minimising waste, building good soils and sequestering carbon. BCCS would like to credit the enthusiasm and organisational energy of Gill Skeffington, parent, and we gratefully acknowledge her wonderful photography used with her permission here.

  • Stroud Permaculture Group Celebrate Compost

    12 Stroud Permaculture Group’s latest trainees enjoyed a compost workshop on Saturday 12 October, discussing carbon sequestration, layering those ‘greens’ and ‘browns’, and discussing the Home Composting demonstration bins on site.

  • LOVELY LEAF MOULD AVAILABLE NOW

    COSY OVER and MULCH your winter beds with our lovely leaf mould. Bagged leaf mould is available for a donation of £1 per bag. Otherwise bring your own bag and dig it out yourself for free.

    If you are depositing this years dead leaves PLEASE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND DON‘T PUT THIS YEAR‘S LEAVES IN LAST YEARS ROTTED LEAF MOULD BIN – DEPOSIT IN THE FARTHEST BIN PLEASE

  • Doing our bit to combat climate change

    BCCS has 160 members households. Significantly we contribute to the circular economy see https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept
    You bring your green stuff to us here and we convert it back to live compost for you to put back onto the allotment or your back garden -all in the same community!
    This is an economic model for a climate changed future.

    All of us who compost and are fighting climate change in our backyards are helping our future earth by composting and putting carbon back into the soil.

  • OUR AMAZING COMPOST: University of Gloucestershire Research

    The first stage of our research enquiry with the University of Gloucestershire is GOOD NEWS:The BCCS compost appears to be approximately 3 x higher in organic carbon content when compared to the commercial compost. Nutrient content (nitrogen and phosphorus) contents are also higher: This supports anecdotal evident that the BCCS compost is of a high quality that provides good plant growth

    Our compost is also, of course, peat free.

    And remember- if you or your school or voluntary group are having problems making your own compost at home contact us, its easy . We can give you advice either on site or at your home. This is free because we participate in the Gloucestershire County Council / GARDEN ORGANIC Master Composters scheme see https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/gloucestershire-master-composters

  • Sieved compost available again

    Sieved and bagged compost is available again. We ran out of this popular soil conditioner a month ago. After a grand sieving session last week with our fantastic volunteers we now have a store of good compost available. Open Saturdays 10-1pm for you to collect. Donation £3 per bag or 4 bags for £10.

    And if you have the time to volunteer to help sieve we can keep the supply going (flapjack and drinks plus a free bag of compost available for all volunteers)

  • CLIMATE COOL-COMPOST! INTERNATIONAL COMPOST AWARENESS WEEK

    5-11 May INTERNATIONAL COMPOST WEEK : CLIMATE COOL–COMPOST!

    See the start of our HOME COMPOSTING demonstration area

    Stroud Woodcraft Folk have made worm composters from recycled empty paint buckets donated by Auro (natural) Paints from the Green Shop Bisley (THANK YOU!)Gloucestershire University internship research study on our compost quality and assessing the value of the sequestration of carbon of our compost gets underway

    And over this summer we will be making a film about our work and the huge value of compost to our Earth

    If you would like a workshop session during this special week let us know via our info@ contact

  • Membership Renewals 2019

    Our Membership secretary has been in contact to request membership renewals.
    We have increased the membership fee to £30 as from this financial year. The fee is payable whenever you join or re-join throughout the year.
    We would like to thank those members who loyally sort their green materials into the well labelled bays$$BUT please could ALL members sort their green materials.
    BCCS is a community run, voluntary scheme, and we rely on your consideration to help us and all our volunteers.

  • CELEBRATE WORLD WORM WEEK from 23 March!

    Take care of those worms – see http://www.wormscience.org
    And here is an earthworm guide :
    https://www.opalexplorenature.org/sites/default/files/7/file/soil-survey-field-guide-2014.pdf

  • BCCS SURVEY: FINDINGS

    These results are based on 102 returned questionnaires. This is a response rate of 68%. Twenty three members who did not respond initially (sampled from the pool of non-responders) received an email reminder and seven (30%) of these responded. These seven are included in the total of 102. There was no evidence to indicate that the late responders were any different from those who responded at the first time of asking. As the number of members without an email address who had not responded was small, no attempt was made to remind them.
    Home composting
    Two thirds of the responders said that they composted green waste at home.
    Use of Stroud DC green bin
    Only 13% of the responders use the SDC green bin system. Those composting green waste at home were a little less likely to use the SDC bin although the difference is small.
    Drive to site
    Most members (84% of responders) drive to the site. The question about how far members drive was not always answered, and sometimes as one way and sometimes as a round trip. Consequently, distances for a sample of 60 responders were obtained via Google maps. The mean distance driven (round trip) was just less than four miles for those who drive (3.3 miles if the non-drivers are included).
    Frequency of visits
    The answers to this question were not easy to interpret as they often depended on season. The best estimate is that, over the year, members use the scheme once a month on average.
    Further discussion
    49 members indicated that they would be prepared to discuss green waste further if asked.

    12 September 2018

  • Testimony to our Unsieved Soil Conditioner/Compost”

    Our unsaved compost – soil conditioner – to give its its correct name received the following accolade from Stroud permaculture gardener Peter Richardson : ” Last year I used your unsieved compost instead of horse manure on the potato bed at my allotment, and my potato crop is the best I’ve ever had .”

    Our unsieved soil conditioner is still ‘twiggy’ and has some weeds in it, but is great for over wintering mulching and many growers use it as the base for raised beds. It is free (although we always welcome donations or perhaps a volunteer hour or two from time to time) so long as you bring and fill your own bags. We are always open Saturdays 10-1 so you don’t need to call.

    Our sieved and bagged soil conditioner / compost, is approx 30 litres and we ask for a donation of £3 a bag or £10 for 4 bags. And please re-use the bags (they are plastic) for your next visit.

  • Home Composting Guidance

    Garden Organic and Gloucestershire County Council work together on the Master Composter scheme. This is a UK wide scheme that encourages us all to compost at home and gives advice to schools, groups and households about home composting.

    Two BCCS Directors are Master Composters and can help with your home composting. Composting your garden waste AT HOME is the most sustainable way of using your green resources and benefits your soil.
    Contact us for help and advice and a free ‘compost surgery’ via our info@ email address.

    BCCS is setting up a Composting Demonstration area on site that will help Home Composters.
    In the meantime drop into BCCS on a Saturday morning and any one of us can give you immediate advice on your compost and composting methods.

  • Please do not deposit false teeth, rootballs, large trunks of trees or wood with nails on our site

    We cannot accept rootballs, tree trunks entwined with netting or nails, plastic Christmas wreaths (yes!!), wood with nails into our site. And, if someone has lost their false teeth we have them here!!!

    Please respect our volunteer helpers whose safety is threatened by nails etc, we are a community scheme, not a tip. Please check, if you have a gardener, that they do NOT to bring these objects to our site. We cannot shred nor compost them.

    Why not build a wildlife area in your garden with these things?

  • Visit from Market Harborough “Hot Composter’s” and Hereford Allotment Society

    Liz Howlett describes BCCS to our visitors21st July we welcomed The Hereford Allotment Society (a grouping of all the allotments in Hereford who are organising themselves into a self managed trust) and the “Hot Composters” from Market Harborough. Master Composter David Robbins supported the St.Stephens Allotments in Market Harborough to undertake a succesful hot composting experiment (see https://www.mhbcharity.co.uk/allotments/ ). It was a great day with much shared information , discussion and a picnic in our Community Orchard.