Empower yourself with the knowledge of what to look for when selecting compost for your garden.
Compost in itself is not glamorous, but it is essential to growing beautiful, nutrient-rich food and medicine that sparkle with life.
Learn the Signs:
1. Looks
The color will be dark brown, not black. This dark brown color indicates high humic acid activity, which in addition to enhancing nutrient availability, it can also promote root growth, and similarly makes beneficial microbes happy in your soil. Good compost will look well decomposed. Pick up a handful and take a look. As a result, there will be no un-composted materials like large sticks, wood chips, or plant matter. Also, seeing earthworms in your compost is good sign.
2. Smell
The smell will tell. Good compost smells like a forest. There will be no foul odor. Foul smells like ammonia, rotten eggs, and sulfur indicate anaerobic microbial activity. Furthermore, these micro-organisms are undesirable to have in compost that we want to put on our food crops.
3. Texture
High-quality compost boasts a loamy texture. Moreover, when held, it feels slightly moist, airy, and porous, reminiscent of a sponge. Its ability to retain water stems from the abundance of life within it. However, unlike poor-quality compost, it is never compacted, waterlogged, or dried out.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about compost, we invite you to take our course, How to Make Thermal Compost. We go through the process, step-by-step, from selection of materials all the way to pile maturation and what to do with your finished compost. This is perfect for someone who is looking to take the next step towards self-reliance with their backyard garden. Having the tools to finally grow healthful nutritious food and medicine without expensive chemical inputs is truly worthwhile.
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