Composting Basics: How Composting Works and Why It Benefits Your Garden

Regardless of your starting soil, compost transforms it into a healthy growing medium. Work it in by hand or tiller, use as top dressing, or apply as mulch.

Core Benefits of Compost

• Enhances soil structure and texture
• Increases airflow and water retention
• Stabilizes pH, supports essential bacteria
• Enables efficient nutrient uptake for healthier growth
• Encourages earthworms (natural aeration)
• Controls erosion, reduces soil-borne diseases

The Composting Process: Nature's Recycling

Compost = organic materials breaking down in soil, enriching structure and adding nutrients. Mirror nature: forests accumulate leaves, wood, etc. Microbes and worms slowly decompose them into humus—dark, crumbly, fertile soil essential for healthy plants.

Garden composting replicates this. Finished compost resembles humus: dark, crumbly, soil-like.

Making Your Own Compost

Most methods share principles. Passive composting (small piles in bins/enclosures) is common. Typical size: 5-7 ft around, 3-4 ft high. Smaller gardens: 3×3 ft works well. Systems are easily tailored.

Ingredients: Leaves, garden plants, newspaper, straw, grass clippings, manure, kitchen scraps (vegetable/fruit peels, eggshells, coffee grounds). Never add: Meat, fat, bones.

Alternate green (nitrogen: grass, kitchen scraps) and brown (carbon: leaves, newspaper, small woody material) layers. Keep moist, not soggy. Turn frequently with fork for aeration and speed.

Decomposition timeline: weeks to a year, depending on materials and pile size.