Amending your soil is a vital process especially for healthy plants. The easiest and common adjustment is compost. Mixing compost and soil will definitely increase the aeration, water retention, nutrients content, beneficial microbes, and more. In addition, you can also make your very own compost that will save up a lot of your costs simply by using all your kitchen scraps and yard waste.
Using compost with soil
When you combine your soil with the compost it is definitely a good move, especially for your garden. Enriching your soil with the help of compost offers various benefits. It is also a 100% natural way for you to improve the health of your soil. But you must also remember that utilizing too much of compost for your soil can give rise to certain issues, especially with certain plants.
Combining your compost with the soil will offer nutrients to your plants however it will also enhance your soil for the years to come. The compost breaks down naturally releasing micronutrients and macronutrients into the soil.
What is the best ratio of compost to the soil?
You always need to make sure that the compost is rotted well and do not have weed seeds. Many experts have also suggested that it is better to spread the compost-on top of the soil and do not mix it. This is mainly because digging can disturb the mycorrhizal fungi that help the plants to absorb the nutrients that are deep within the soil. But if the soil is sandy or clay, mixing the compost with the soil will in fact enrich the soil.
So, you need to analyze the quality of your soil, if it’s texture is good you don’t need to hassle yourself with digging and mixing the compost you can spread it over the surface. In time, natural actions like rain and worms will allow the compost to reach the roots of the plants. If you are planning to make your potting soil then you could mix a single part of composting with a part of topsoil, perlite, and peat.
An excellent way to go about it is using compost and soil in order to perk the garden, don’t utilize over 3 inches. Your vegetation will benefit from a higher range. The ornamental beds require less, however, fall cover crops of 7.6 centimeters offer a certain amount of protection for the roots of the plants and retain a good level of moisture. For spring application, you can utilize 1.3 centimeters, it will feed the plants gently and also help to keep away the annual weeds.
Overall, I would say that the composition ratio of your compost and soil will always differ and depends upon the texture of soil you have and the kind of plants that you are growing. If you have border plans or flower beds then the compost that you can utilize is maximum of 30%. And if you’re talking about containers then 25% with enough aeration.
So, before you begin to consider mixing the compost with your soil do consider the certain factors that we have discussed in this article. I do hope that it has answered your question. All the best!