The 5 Best Ways to Use Compost (Plus Bonus Vid)

Around here, we talk quite a bit about compost. If you're not yet a compost convert, you might want to know exactly why you'd want to use your own compost.

We think you'll be surprised at how this easy-to-create, natural product can boost your garden.

Here are 5 fantastic ways to use compost. After, read on for a bonus video with directions on making compost quickly and easily. Once you see the results in your garden, you'll wonder why you never tried it!

1. Feed Your Lawn

Get your lawn off to a good start by sprinkling compost onto the grass early in the season.

If your lawn is composed primarily of dormant grasses, you can still place the compost before it begins to show green shoots. Your best bet is to wait for a week when you're expecting rain. Otherwise, water soon after placing the compost. You'll experience amazing lawn growth.

2. Dress Your Garden

Another place to sprinkle compost on ground surfaces is in your veggie or flower garden.

Again, you need only sprinkle the compost on top. You don't have to rake the compost below the surface level. Particularly if you water or if it rains, the nutrients from the compost will begin to leach into the soil quickly.

3. Add Water-Conserving Mulch

Compost can help hold water in typically dry soils.

Dig out portions of your garden (before planting, of course), add your compost and rake it in. You can also combine it with organic planting soil, particularly if the natural ground isn't very nutrient-rich and is very dry.

4. Make Compost Tea

Compost tea is so easy to make and is a natural way to feed your growing veggies and budding blooms.

You will need a very basic aquarium pump, as you must keep the "tea" aerated while brewing it. You'll also need a five-gallon bucket, water, and some compost. Here's an easy tutorial.

5. Aerate Dense Soil

If you have dense or clay-like soil, you probably already use commercial potting soil. Unfortunately, many of these contain factory-made ingredients.

Instead, dig up the area and add plenty of compost. Replace some of the soil you've dug up and mix with your rake. The soil will be aerated, easier for roots to grow through, and rich in nutrients.

Making Your Own Compost: BONUS Vid

Making compost is actually very easy. Watch our fast tips here:

But Isn't it Difficult/Time Consuming/Smelly to Make Compost?

Actually...no, no and no. Composting takes hardly any of your time once you're set up.

All you really need to get started are:

• A large container (an actual compost container, or an outdoor garbage can with holes poked in the bottom and a firmly fitting top)
• A compost thermometer
• A rake or large stirring stick
• "Green" materials (see vid, above)
• "Brown" materials (see vid, above)

Adding the proper ratio of materials (green to brown) will keep the temperature at the right level and will prevent smelliness and pests. That's as simple as literally putting in more of either type of material (dry or wet).

If you'd like to use compost soon for spring planting, get started now. Materials will take up to 12 weeks to be fully degraded into compost. (In a hurry? Add worms!)

Love composting? Have your own tips? Contact us here! We'd love to hear from you.

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