Blogger, Compost and flowers

As you may know, if you have a 'Blogger' blog, it is not updating the posts from blogs we follow,  so we are all missing each other's new posts, unless we go over to their blogs from our reading lists.  Please keep visiting and I will keep visiting too.  Hopefully this may be sorted, but it has been going on for a while, so who knows?  On the whole, I have found Blogger to be pretty good, but this is first time there seems to be a major issue which isn't being resolved. 

On to my actual post.  

I have what is affectionately called a Dalek compost bin (the alien enemies of Dr Who - see here for further details), which has worked really well and provided me with lovely compost for the last couple of years.  I thought I had cracked the composting recipe and had been busy filling the bin with green and brown waste through the year.  It got very hot here and I covered the bin with a white sheet during the summer, to try to keep the temperature down a bit so that the worms wouldn't be cooked.  

It came time to empty the bin - a tricky task, as I don't have a lot of room for such shenanigans.  Unfortunately, this year something has gone seriously awry as I had slimy, smelly half- decomposed stuff all the way through the bin.  No nice, sweet-smelling crumbly compost for me this year.  So, I refilled the bin, aerating as I went, mixing in whatever brown waste (cardboard, egg boxes, paper etc) I had to hand.  

What have I learned from this experience?  Composting is an art as well as a science. I need to ensure I have 50/50 green and brown waste when I add some to the bin.  I also need to empty and then refill the bin in Spring, to make sure it is aerated, something I neglected to do this year.  Oh well, as we gardeners are so fond of saying, there's always next year!  

In order to cheer myself up, I took some photos of flowers in the garden, Above is Rose 'Eyes for You' which has been fantastic this year.

This is Anemone Ruffled Swan, with the frilly edge to its petals. 

Rose Dannahue, which has valiantly continued to flower, despite not enjoying the heat.

Helianthus Lemon Queen, normally really tall and with slightly thuggish tendencies in the right spot (it's fine in this garden).  It struggled with the heat too, is much smaller this year and has been slightly later to flower, waiting for the much needed rain we have had.  It is such a cheerful plant and I love to see it in flower.

Finally, a bee of some kind enjoying the pollen/nectar from the Helianthus.