Healthy soil is key to a thriving organic garden. At Wakelyns veg, we operate within a ‘closed loop’ farming system. This means that all fertility inputs into these alleys are existing outputs from the wider farm around us. These outputs, such as grass clippings, wheat straw, vegetable waste, weeds and comfrey are all intensively composted here. We monitor the temperature of our heaps as an indicator of microbial activity crucial to the process. An active heap may be turned up to five times in fifteen days to ensure that high temperatures, required for thorough composting and elimination of weed seeds, are maintained and evenly distributed. This compost is then applied to the various growing areas around us, improving soil quality by adding organic matter and nutrients, improving drainage and stimulating soil microbiology and beneficial fungi.