Beyond Compost

Leafmould

If you have deciduous trees in your garden, you will be able to make leafmould – another useful material for the organic gardener. Making it is far simpler that composting and is just a matter of collecting all your fallen leaves in a heap and jumping up and down on them to exclude air and fit more in. Unlike compost, leaves decompose anaerobically, in other words without oxygen. It is a good idea to make a wire netting enclosure or something similar to prevent them blowing away. Leafmould is devoid of nutrients, but it is great to use as a soil conditioner, a peat substitute and as a mulch. Avoid adding evergreen leaves to the heap because they are very slow to rot down and many of them are quite toxic to other plants.

Green Manures

While compost is the primary way that an organic gardener adds fertility to the soil, there are other options too. Green manures such as mustard, clover and phacelia can be sown on any bare patch of ground to keep it covered and then dug in before the ground is planted to add structure and fertility.

Manure

Well-rotted manure is good for hungry crops like potatoes, but be sure that it is obtained from a safe, ideally organic, source. There have been problems with manure contaminated with persistent pesticides causing problems for gardeners. Well-rotted is important too, if manure is too fresh it will actually deprive the soil of nitrogen

Wormeries

Where space is so limited that there is no room for compost bins, a wormery, properly managed, will produce modest quantities of both fertile compost and nutrient rich liquid feed.

Natural Fertilisers

Fish, blood and bone is a natural alternative to chemical fertilisers and is spread on the soil in a similar way. It is high in potash and is a useful boost if plants are failing to flower or fruit. Seaweed, either fresh or as a dried powder performs a similar function.

Liquid Feeds