Why Is Compost BEST Soil Amendment
Who am I and Why Should You Believe Me?
Since 1982 I have been using a lost secret gardening method which is, without question the absolute best method for growing strong, healthy, fragrant flowers and lush, tasty, insect/disease-resistant vegetables possible. And to this day, I am still constantly amazed at the results.
Surprizingly this secret gardening method had totally escaped my attention when I helped my parents on the farm.
From the time I was small until I got out of college and got a job, I was expected to spend my summers helping my mother and my grandmother take care of huge gardens on a small farm nestled along the beautiful Bay Chaleur in New Brunswick.
At the time it was important for each family to grow huge crops of vegetables and to store such staples as carrots, potatoes, turnip in outside cellars (a hole as big as a room with a wooden peak above it) throughout the winter.
Also my mother would either freeze or make chili or pickles with such veggies as onions, yello/green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. So I got to be very intimitate with the taste and feel of very healthy, vibrant vegetables — even those kept in storage and eaten in the winter.
However, I had somehow missed the point of WHY the crops grown on the farm had been so abundant and tasty. As a matter of fact, it was a matter of pride to my grandmother that we have the nicest garden for miles around. Since it was not my job to prepare the soil, the concept of the soil needing to be replenished every year had just not registered.
I had failed to realize that home-made/green compost was their secret to growing nutritious and healthly vegetables and plants year after year. . .
In the 1970’s after I moved to “the big city”, I noticed that store-bought vegetables just did not taste as good or seem as healthy as those I had been eating on the farm.
I got fed up eating these tasteless vegetables from the so along with peach and pear trees and my favourite, tea roses, I put together a little garden in one corner of my backyard.
Somehow, though, my results were less than pleasing. As a matter of fact, I was disappointed!
I could not figure out why I had to use round thick plastic rings around the rose stem to keep them upright and straight. It frustrated me that they were always bending under the weight of the roses (which were not that big and abundant to start with), and the roses seem to have very little fragrance.
Since I had not clued in on the secret yet, I was using liquid fertilizers to feed my plants and vegetables. Although my home-grown veggies were somewhat tastier than the bought ones, they did not grow very big and they seemed to constantly be attacked by one insect or another.
Not knowing any better, I would try to get rid of these voracious insects/pests by using insecticide. I remember thinking: ” I don’t recall my parents using insecticide on their vegetables and I don’t remember ever seeing slugs in the garden, so why do I have to do so to save my plants?”
To make matters worse I knew that any insecticide or pesticides I would use would eventually end up in the water table and contaminate it.
I was remembering those documentaries I would show the students back in the 1970’s when teaching “Let’s Help Our Environment” issues.
The different scenes from one particular documentary kept flashing in my mind… pictures of how in New Brunswick the ecosystem was being severely threatened by seepage of sprayed insecticides and pesticides and the usage of brook or creek water to clean spraying equipment.
The fact that I was adding to the pollution of my own drinking water bothered me immensely… notwithstanding the fact that I, my family, and the neighbours were inhaling the fumes as I was spraying.
I had to find another way to deal with the insects. It was obvious that my plants were not healthy, and I had to find the solution!
I was not happy! I could not figure out why I was spending a fortune on liquid and granular fertilizers (which supposedly were just as good as manure and compost), but I was not getting the results I wanted. Was it the soil? the environment? What was lacking? WHERE WAS I GOING WRONG?
Finally A Solution!
I was not able to ask my parents for they were not around anymore. Then one day my Dutch neighbor, noticing my disappointment, explained this to me:
“The secret method of making and adding compost to your soil will help you put back into your soil the nutrients which have been used up by growing plants..
“You see, vegetables grown using this old-fashioned method which has more or less disappeared since the 80’s will have time to grow normally and absorb all the added nutrients from the soil.
“In turn, especially your vegetables will have absorbed a wider variety of the nutrients, will be healthier, thus will be able to ward off insects and disease more easily. Try it and see!”
And I did. My what a difference!
This ancient secret method of adding lots of home-made compost to the soil is such a superior method of gardening, I never looked back. From then on I used different methods of composting: hot composting, cold composting, green composting, crop rotation ….All of these methods made my back yard come alive! Not overnight, mind you. It took a few years to get the soil back in shape, but the effort was well worth it. (If you buy my ebook, you will see what I mean when you will see the pictures of my back yard)
Then I had to sell my property and move into an apartment. Even then I continued with composting, this time it’s vermicomposting . . . in my living room! The worm bin is behind my couch . . . out of sight. (You can see a picture of my home made very small “bin” in Section III of my ebook, How to Make Compost …Using the Worm Composting Method.)
Vermicompost does wonders for my houseplants and my little balcony garden in the summer (even though my apartment faces north, I get sun in the morning and later in the afternoon.)
I am so convinced that adding compost to the soil is such a superior method of gardening, EVERY VEGETABLE GROWER AND GARDENER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT.
That’s why I decided to compile all the composting information into one ebook so that anyone who wanted to gow lush plants and healthier vegetables could discover how easy it is to make their own compost which help the plant’s growing process in so many ways.
Besides eating healthy, delicious, nutrition filled vegetables which we know have not been sprayed with insecticide and pesticide, the nicest part about composting is that we are helping to keep our water and air cleaner so that our children as well as all aspects of the ecosystem will have a chance to stay healthier.
Thank you for being a part of this movement: turning to compost to feed our soil.
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