The best plants grow in the best soils. The best soils are enriched with compost. The best way to get plenty of good compost is make your own. And the best time to start is now.
When confronted with spent plants and piles of autumn leaves at season's end, I'm grateful to have a compost bin ready and waiting to receive them. It makes garden cleanup quick and easy. It also provides a convenient place to turn yard, garden and kitchen wastes into a valuable soil conditioner that will supply plant-pleasing nutrients and improve the soil's structure at the same time ... for free.
If I don't already have a compost bin empty and ready for new materials, it's not difficult to find places to spread any contents remaining in a bin. Autumn is a perfect time to spread a two-inch layer of compost over the bare soil in the vegetable garden or around ornamental plants. The compost contents don't have to be completely "cooked" before spreading and you don't even have to dig the compost into the soil. Earthworms will easily accomplish that job by spring.
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Time after time, the people who grow prize-winning plants at county fairs, tomato tastings and flower shows confess their secret: compost. Mycorrhizae and other beneficial microorganisms in a soil enhanced with compost make the difference.
Nevertheless, there are still plenty of gardeners who are scared to try composting. If you're one of them, you'll love Ken Thompson's light-hearted approach in "Compost, The Natural Way to Make Food for Your Garden" (DK Publishing, 2007, $18).
The book is an easy read, with text broken into small, easy-to-grasp topics usually treated in just a page or two and liberally illustrated with pretty photos.
A great cheerleader for composting, Thompson takes all the mystery out of the process. People write college theses on composting, he points out, but you shouldn't let that worry you. He then proceeds to provide all the science you'll need to know in just a few pages, including gems such as "waste paper is the answer to a composter's prayer."
Compost is lot like cooking, he says, but "unlike baking a cake, getting the proportions right is not critical and baking time is up to you."
Thompson cautions gardeners not to be put off by the beautiful compost they see tumbling out of bins in garden magazines and on television programs. It's been carefully sifted to remove all the annoying, twiggy bits, he says. Your compost is ready to use when you say it is.
Still reluctant? Thompson advises gardeners to just relax. Even if you do everything wrong, the raw materials will eventually turn into decent compost anyway.
