Compost still composting
Who ever said you needed finish compost to do your gardening with? Surely not us here at Balconycompost.com! In fact we’d go as far as to say that concept is blasphemy. That’s right! Blasphemy. The most brilliant part about compost is that if it’s not done yet it will just keep on composting! Oh the wonders of nature.
So what are we getting at? If you’re still in your first few months of composting and perhaps don’t have any technically finished compost, aka humus, you can still do your gardening/re-potting/whatever. Of course it only makes sense (especially in potted plants) to use your most composted compost for it’s nutrients will be most readily available for your plants to dig their roots into.
Since we’re specializing in balconies and urban areas we are more concerned with how we utilize our compost in potted plants. To explain this in the best manner would be to utilize a drawing, we apologize for having to do what we are about to do:
Of course this isn’t drawn to scale by any stretch of the imagination. But to clarify: of all the dirt used at a maximum would I use 1/3rd compost especially if it isn’t fully composted. The less composted it is the less I would use of it, but if you dig through one of my pots I’m sure you’ll find a chunk of banana peel next to some crumbled egg shells and avocado skin.
The reason why I put a layer of compost on the top is because compost is lovingly moisture absorbant. It will help lock in the moisture for the rest of the soil so less watering is needed and the sunlight will help breakdown whatever still needs to decompose.
Any other non-fully decomposed materials in the middle of the pot will break down over time slowly releasing nutrients to your plant for a plethora of multi-beneficial-ness.
