Good quality, home-made compost is teaming with life, and because of this we need to care for it, to the very end!
When we have spent months making a great batch of compost, getting it just right, the last thing we want to do is kill it.
At the heart of it, compost is about creating the right environment for the diverse array of soil microbes to feed, multiply and flourish! As the microbes digest the ingredients we add to our compost pile, they unlock previously unavailable nutrients and make them available to plants, and other animals.
For the soil food web to function well it needs food, water and air. This is true at all stages of composting, including when the compost is mature and ready to go into the garden.
Unlike commercial compost, which is dried out and has a higher carbon content to assist with processing and distribution, home-made compost is moist and sticky and will adhere to our tools, gloves, clothes and skin. We want this amazing ‘glueyness’ in compost, it holds onto water, feeds the soil and builds good soil structure.
But these qualities can all be undone if we mismanage our finished compost.
If good-quality compost is allowed to dry out, it will get hard and crisp on the outside and become hydrophobic, meaning it will repel water, rather than absorb it. Many of the microscopic life forms in the compost will either die or go into a kind of hibernation/stasis where they put a protective (water repelling) coating around themselves.
At YIMBY, we recommend covering compost as it ‘cures’ with a good layer of straw or other carbon-rich, mulchy material. Shade cloth or a canvas tarp are also good for protecting compost from the sun and wind. The important thing is to keep our compost from drying out. This care is still required when we spread finished compost on the garden. Covering the compost with a protective layer of mulch to keep the compost moist and happy.
When we are ready to take our precious compost from the protection of its bay and dig it into the garden, it’s important to get it into the garden as soon as possible. If we leave compost sitting in a bucket or barrow for too long it can dry out in hot conditions, or drown in rainy weather, a sorry end to months of careful microbe farming.
Good compost needs to be looked after, don’t kill it, care for it.
From all of us at the YIMBY team thank you for reading, supporting and responding to the Compost Conversation in 2024. Have a very joyful Christmas, New Year and summer break. The Compost Conversation will return in early 2025 after a trip to the beach for seaweed collecting. Happy composting!
– Mikaela Beckley and Joel Meadows work with *Yes In My Back Yard, (YIMBY), a community-scale composting initiative in Castlemaine and surrounds. Send questions or comments to hello@yimbycompost.com, or to book in for a compost workshop!
