It is a know fact that garden compost is the single most positive aspect for a healthy soil. Better then farm yard manure and certainly better then artificial fertilizer.

This is a fundamental truth that cannot be stressed too much or understood too well. By using compost in our raised beds, we are working with nature and not going against it.

Look at any good garden, be it vegetables or flowers and you will see that the secret is the use of good garden compost.

The reason that compost is so good for your soil is because it puts back and stimulates living organisms that are so vital for your soils health.

Think of compost like yeast that is used in the baking of bread. The compost is alive with billions of little tidy living creatures that are all working away to restore and maintain your soil.

The compost helps the soil return nutrients and fibre to the soil as well as opening up little pathways for the roots of your crop to make the most of the nutrients contained therein.

There is nothing else on Gods earth that is good as garden compost for your soil.

Making good compost is very simple, it is just a matter of using as much bulk as possible, but like everything else, there are a few rules:

1. Only use organic material; this means no plastic, broken china, stones, or anything of that nature.

2. Crushing, shedding, mowing, or bashing the material before you put it on the heap will increase the surface area and speeds up the composting process. Therefore, Brussels sprouts and cabbage stumps should be crushed. Do not add to the heap tree pruning, Rose cuttings, pine needles, or any such woody material.

3. It is wise to exclude all meat, cooked food, and fat. The reason is that if you use such material you will attract rats which you are better off with out,

4. Unwanted weed roots such as couch grass, docks, ground elder and James grass should be spread on a wire rack or laid out on concrete to dry out. Alternatively, you could burn them and use the ash in the compost heap.

5. Keep the heap moist, but not wet.

6. Make the heap in some form of wooded box with an earth floor.

7. Do not put too much of one thing on the heap at once. For example, grass-cuttings dumped in a big batch would exclude air into that part of the compost and upset the whole process.

8. Turn the compost at least once. This adds oxygen, which is a major ingredient that the bacteria depend on.

9. Have patients. Every heap is different and depends on what you add , the time of year and so on. You should be able to make a good batch within a 6-9 month period.

As a rough guide, a barrow load of compost to 3 sq metres (1sq yard) to your soil should be more then enough for each growing season.

To my mind, it is vital to use compost on your raised beds because it is nature’s way. The basis of all soil improvement must be the liberal use of organic matter. It is impossible to make up for the lack of humus in the soil by the use of artificial fertilizer. If you want to grow the heaviest yields and the best-flavoured crops that are rich in vitamins it is necessary to make sure that your soil contains enough humus.