Selecting The Right Compost For Your Garden

It’s still too early to do most of the planting in the garden, but if you are looking to start growing your own fruit, veg or even just some attractive flowers this summer, then you will have to think about braving the chill in mid February and giving the beds a quick fork over with some fertilizer. For those who didn’t think far enough ahead to put some fertiliser in before winter, there are some solutions which will let you hit the ground running and improve the soil in time for the planting season.

Assuming that you are not going to fill the soil with bags of chemicals, then using a good quality manure will put your plants in good health for the spring. In addition to providing the essential nitrogen compounds and minerals they will need, manure adds structure to the soil which will aid root development and also stop the structure breaking down or forming hard clay if there are spells of severe rain.

Cow manure is possibly the best type to use, ruminant digestive systems are designed to break down plant material into a rich soup of nutrients that is readily applied to the soil. However, if you have ever lived in the countryside, the small of muck-spreading is not perhaps something you want to replicate in a domestic or urban setting, at least if you want to remain on good terms with your neighbours.

You might alternatively try horse manure. This hasn’t had quite the same amount of digestion involved, and won’t be as offensive to next door or passers-by even if you use large amounts over your flower beds. Fresh horse manure will be quite acidic but this will be lower and less likely to have viable weed seeds if it has been well rotted in a compost heap beforehand. If the idea of animal manure still doesn’t appeal, then mushroom compost is a quality alternative, full of protein and compounds that will rot down to provide nitrogen, but often containing amounts of chalk, so do not use this if your garden contains alkali-hating plants or is naturally alkaline to begin with.