Gardening at Home - Everybody knows that gardening with compost is very good for the plant itself and also for the soil or in other word compost helps plants and soil. Maybe some of you don’t know exactly what are the advantages of using compost? Is garden compost beneficial? Or how does compost help? So in this article, I will share about benefits of gardening with compost and how compost helps plants and soil.
Benefits of Gardening with Compost
Here are some benefits of gardening with compost:
- Gardening with compost can improve soil quality and soil structure.
- The advantage of using compost in your garden is enabling it to better retain water/moisture, air, and nutrients so the plants can be thriving and healthier.
- When you make and use compost, you are contributing in clean and healthy environment. Recycling your solid waste landfills and even your kitchen waste into compost and then use they back in your garden which is beneficial for your garden.
But how compost helps plants and soil? Here are the explanation the advantages of using compost and how it helps.
First Advantage of Using Compost: Compost Helps Soil Structure
The structure of the soil is built by inorganic elements such as clay, sand, and silt coalesce with organic matters like humus and compost. They create aggregates or groups which are loosely composed particles bound by compost and earthworms help. The proper aggregates can create a “crumbly” textured soil which is ideal for water retention, drainage, and is easier to work. This lightened soil also will allow tender young roots to penetrate the ground more easily. The advantage of using compost into heavily clayed or overly sandy soil is it will allow air to circulate and result in a healthier overall substructure.
Compost loosens tightly bound particles in silt or clay, it allowing roots to easily spread and thereby impeding erosion so that’s why prevention of erosion is one of advantage of using compost in the garden. By encouraging healthy root systems, compost also increases soil’s ability to retain water and decrease run-off the water. Based on research, increasing organic material for 5% will quadruple the water holding capacity of soil. Decreasing water run-off will protect our waters by thwarting pollution from general soil run-off, fertilizer, and pesticides.
Second Advantage of Using Compost: Compost Aids in Nutrient Retention
The addition of compost into soil will adds nitrogen, phosphorous and kalium / potassium as well as micro-nutrients such as iron, manganese, zinc, and copper. These micro-nutrients are only needed in small amounts but they are very essential and important as contributors to a plant’s overall health. The advantage of using compost will provide micro-nutrients for the plants need while commercial fertilizers which are available at many garden center are often lacking in micro-nutrients.
In composting, some materials will break down more rapidly than others, in effect resulting a sort of slow release fertilizer. The greater variety of nutrients will be releases if the greater variety ingredients is available in the compost. The advantage of using compost into the soil will also neutralize both acidic and alkaline soils, so it can bring the pH levels to an ideal range for nutrient absorption by plants.
The advantage of using compost in garden also will attracts red worms, earthworms, centipedes, sow bugs, and others. They can break down the organic material passes through their digestive systems and produce another organic material which is beneficial into plants and also the soil. They also can help soil aeration.
Other Advantages of Using Compost
The advantage of using compost in garden will also make the plants are more resistant to disease and tend to have fewer pest problems without the use of pesticides. Compost application to grass suppresses a multitude of fungal diseases and compost that is predominantly leaf based has been shown to be effective against nematodes.
Lastly, other advantage of using compost is cost effective, especially if you use your homemade compost. Your budget for garbage pickup, buying pesticides and fertilizers will decrease.
So there are some advantages of using compost for your garden soil. As the conclusion, gardening with compost at home is a win-win situation for all the way around.