Encyclopedia Botanica Podcast, Episode 18: Applying Compost to the Fall Garden

Over-wintered broccoli in early March. The plant was surrounded with compost and the empty spaces in the garden were covered in compost. 

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This week we will be discussing how to use compost as a fall garden amendment. In particular, we're going to talk about it how you can use compost to improve and protect your soil over the wet winter months.

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In this episode, we discuss:

What is compost and why is it good for your garden?What’s the difference between compost and soil?What is mulch?

Important Take-aways:

When cleaning up your garden in the fall (or at the end of your growing season), we recommend applying a 2-3 inch layer of compost to the top of your beds.Compost is essentially another word for decayed organic matter. And organic matter is one component of soil.A typical natural soil is made up of about 45 percent minerals, 25 percent water, 25 percent air, and only 5 percent organic matter.In a garden, organic matter content can be much higher. In fact, in many gardens we use a soil mix that is 50% compost and 50% sand. Other growers will plant into 100% compost. Generally speaking, an organic matter content of 10-50% is appropriate for a vegetable garden.If you'd like to learn the make-up of your soil, get a soil test! Here are two labs that we use on a regular basis:King Conservation District Soil Testing ProgramA&L Eastern Laboratories


















Composting a garden in the fall























Planting right into a fall-composted garden in the spring.























Spring spinach growing in a fall-composted garden























Kale trees!!

Heard on the Episode:

“High quality compost will have been managed so that it reached a temperature of at least 160 degrees during the decomposition process. This high temperature kills the pathogens and the weed seeds in the organic matter. This is crucial because their’s nothing worse than top-dressing your garden just to have it sprout in the spring!” - Hilary Dahl

“Don’t throw your food scraps directly into the garden!” - Kellie Phelan

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