Waste is turned into a green living environment! This could be compost! Out of noir! However, many gardeners do not grow it or use it in their garden, at least not until it is fully ripe! In fact, we can use this or noir anytime!

 

Use Compost Every Time, Yes, But…

Provided you don’t bury it (bury compost is nonsense, a pure invention of Man. in Nature, this does not exist!). Buried and deprived of air, decomposing waste creates disturbances in plants: accumulation of toxic substances, presence of midges, white worms, cutworms, wireworms (wireworms) and greater susceptibility to cryptogamous diseases and aphids…

 

Composting As Rotten Leaves

When the compost is in the formation stage, it is therefore mainly used on the surface, as mulch for crops. Spread it in small amounts at the base of gourmet plants such as squash, pumpkins, melons, chayote, tomatoes or aubergines and run a fingernail to mix it into the first 5cm of the soil: you will quickly measure its effects. With watering or rain, the earthworms will do their job by releasing nutrients that will be drawn directly from the plants. They will take root better, be more productive, of course!

 

Compost Mixed With Soil

As the compost matures, it becomes more refined. Its coarser elements disappear, its texture becomes airy and lumpy. It is perfectly ripe when a sweet underbrush aroma emerges.It can therefore be mixed with the earth, or with a good potting soil and come into contact with the roots. After passing through a sieve to refine it further, you can even use compost as a seedling medium (see below).

 

Composting To Lighten The Soil

Last but not least, compost is an excellent amendment (perhaps the best?): it lightens, by repetition and patience, the heaviest and most clayey soils.

 

When Is the Best Time to Compost Your Vegetable Garden?

The best time to spread compost in the vegetable garden is in late autumn (November, December) before the ground freezes. Summer crops and harvests are over, so a large number of plots are left bare, which should definitely be avoided!

 

To protect the soil from bad weather, if you do not sow green manure, bring fertilizer, 3kg/m² is enough. Incorporate it into the soil with a simple scraping. If the coprochoma is not completely ripe, that’s okay! It will complete decomposition in the soil during the bad season.

 

Spreading Compost Is Not Enough!

It even does half the work! Back, it is especially necessary to cover the plot with a mulch of dead leaves (available in quantity at this time) and/or plant residues from the garden (clippings, ferns). Why ? Well, to protect from the cold and bad weather all the little craftsmen of the earth (earthworms, microbial fauna) who will do the rest of the work better than anyone else: that is, to prepare a flexible and fertile soil for spring plantings, all without digging the attempt!

 

Can Compost Be Used With All Vegetables?

Yes and no. Some vegetable plants don’t need it! More specifically, they hate rich soils that contain too much of them. This applies to all bulbs (garlic, onion, shallot). So it’s best to anticipate their location and avoid making the slightest addition of compost so you don’t see them sprouting or rotting in place!

 

In contrast, other cultures need generous amounts of compost : Cucurbitaceae, for example, grow and fruit (much) better when established directly in an old compost pile, Solanaceae (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers/bell peppers) also develop a more robust root system in the presence compost and are less prone to disease! Even peas grow faster when given small amounts of precious black gold.

 

And In The Ornamental Garden: How To Use Compost?

In the decorative garden, you can use compost in all seasons. However, 3 main uses stand out:

 

Mix Compost Into The Soil Immediately After Planting

Use it when planting roses or shrubs, on hills or bare roots, or when dividing perennials, except for bulbous plants and land plants, such as lavender for example. Mix a good amount of compost with the original soil to lighten and enrich it. Fill the hole with this preparation: the plants will recover better.

 

Bring Compost to Maintenance

At the end of winter, put a shovelful of very mature compost into the foothills of spring or summer flowering perennials and shrubs, before they start again! Scrape the soil to the surface to incorporate! You can also contribute perennials or annuals established in a planter or in a pot with ivy geraniums (pelargonias) kept from one year to the next. They will benefit from this little push and it will restore an acceptable level of substrate in the container.

 

Compost For Seedlings

Finally, have you noticed how seeds of all kinds (especially tomatoes or zucchini) always sprout very well on their own in an old compost pile? So why not take advantage of compost’s effects on seed emergence? Pass perfectly ripe compost through a fine sieve. Mix the resulting residues with seed compost, also very fine, in equal parts or in a ratio of ¾ compost-1/4 compost. Fill boxes, cups or cells with this mixture and sow your annual seeds (marigolds, cosmos, lavatera, naturtiums, cleomes etc.) or vegetables (tomatoes, courgettes, courgettes or aubergines). The resulting plants will be stronger, better rooted, before being transplanted into the ground!