Adding Cured Compost

Why

Building your soil by adding cured compost is the best way to get your soil back to the ideal of five percent organic matter for two reasons:

One, it’s typically the fastest way to add organic matter. Mulching and tilling in cover crops are great methods, but the un-decomposed tissues of both will break down into a much smaller volume—also pulling some precious nitrogen from your soil in the process. Cured compost, by contrast, is already mostly decomposed, so the volume you add goes directly to increasing your organic content without decreasing in volume or pulling nitrogen from your soil.

Two, it’s what all garden plants love. Its mixture of macro- and micro-nutrients is perfect for your plants, providing them with a full slate of each needed element in the proportion they need it. As such, almost every garden plant deficiency and disease is eliminated by giving plants plenty of cured compost. With it, they explode with growth, health, and production.

Healthy Plants Vs. Unhealthy Plants

Here’s a sneak peek at our recent experiments with 13 different soil preparation methods, and how the plants compare to those in only slightly prepared soil, to illustrate:

How and How Much

After removing anything else you don’t want to be worked into the soil (e.g. mulch from the previous year or weeds that you don’t trust will be killed by working the soil), add a thick layer of cured compost on top of the soil you’ll be loosening. For most gardens, especially if they’re new, this layer can be two-to-four inches or more deep—if you have that much compost available.

When

No matter which method you use to loosen your soil, add cured compost over the areas before you loosen it. Then, loosen and shape the soil using your desired method(s). In this way, the compost is mixed in automatically as part of the loosening process. If you loosen soil in beds, you’ll only add it over the beds, but, if you till larger areas or the entire garden, you’ll add it over the whole area you till. Either way, the best time to add compost is in the spring just before you work the soil. In this way, the compost gets mixed into the growing area naturally as you loosen the soil with your tiller, digging fork, or spade.

Where to Get It

The best source is to grow your own, but you’ll likely need much more than you can produce yourself, especially at first.

Purchase extra needed compost from wherever it’s most convenient, but keep in mind that buying in bulk from local landscape services or nurseries costs about half or a third as much as buying bags from a store. Plus, it’s delivered right to your place. The more you get the cheaper it is by volume. For example, I can currently get eight cubic yards of the best, cured compost I’ve ever seen delivered to my home from a local landscape company for $375. That same amount would cost me $1,080 if I were to buy it in the one-cubic-foot bags sold at most stores. Plus, I’d have to tote it home myself.

Call and ask around, and you’ll find great bulk sources near you.

Keep adding compost every year, and your garden will improve immensely with each addition—likely more than you can currently hope to dream!

You can also add organic matter to your soil and provide many other benefits by applying mulch and growing cover crops.