Improving soil with compost

Many of us have inherited gardens that are inherently poor for growing plants, whether this is down to the underlying geology of the area or historic management there is a simple way to overcome the challenges of low fertility and poor soil, its simply to add compost.  

Compost improves your soil in a number of ways.  Crucially compost returns nutrients to the soil such as phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and many trace minerals, all to be released slowly over 1-2 years for optimal plant growth & health.

• Compost is a natural fertilizer that improves soil aeration, tilth & drainage.
• Compost, as a top-dressing, promotes weed control by suppressing growth. Furthermore, improved tilth makes it more difficult for weeds to anchor roots.
• Compost controls erosion by creating good tilth.
• Compost protects plant roots from sun and wind damage.
• Compost conserves water, when used as a mulch: the soil retains moisture beneath it.
• Compost increases water retention when absorbed into loose or sandy soils. It aids drainage in clay or other heavy soils.
• Compost reduces soil diseases because of its high nutrient content.

All in all if you want a healthy garden you need healthy soil and if you want healthy soil you need to compost.  With rising food prices and a crisis of biodiversity around the globe, we need to improve our soils health and so we all need to get more composting going on.  For more information on how to get started with composting visit getcomposting.com