As the garden starts to wind down a bit for winter, we are often left wondering what I should do with used compost. The compost may no longer be fit for use in tubs and baskets, but it still holds a lot of value in the garden.
So when you’re turning out your containers and baskets at the end of the season and thinking about what to do with the used composts, consider one of these ideas.
1. Add Old Compost into your Home Compost
Home composting is one of the many fun and practical ways to use waste products from your garden. Old compost can be used to make new compost if you add it back into your compost heap. The microbial activity in your compost heap, along with the mixing action of worms and other creatures living in your compost will reinvigorate your compost and before long you will be able to use it on your garden all over again.
2. Use Old Compost as Mulch or Soil Improver
Old compost may have run out of nutrients, but it is far from useless when it comes to feeding your plants. If you use old compost as a mulch on your garden beds it will add organic matter to your soil. Organic matter will help to feed the life in the soil, which in turn will help to release nutrients to your plants.
Mulching will also help to improve drainage in your soils, help to lock in moisture during times of drought and help suppress weeds. Organic matter will help to improve your soil structure by feeding the life that lives in the soil.
We also sell a range of soil improvers and mulches for different jobs.
3. Use Old Compost for Fixing Patches in your Lawn
Use compost is perfect for adding to patches in your lawn that need to be reseeded. Often the soil in these patches is poor and needs the addition of organic matter. Adding your used compost to these areas will help seed germination and establishment.
You might also want to try our peat-free Lawn Dressing.
4. Use Old Compost for Levelling Your Garden
Whether it is filling up raised beds or evening out the surface of a lawn, old compost is a great filler for these areas of the garden.
Our peat-free Topsoil Blended Loam is also a great choice for small levelling jobs.
5. Grow Carrots
Carrots are well known for growing in nutrient-poor soils. This makes used compost the perfect medium to grow them into. Your carrots will grow down fast to find nutrients deeper in the compost, and the result will be more crops for you.
Carrots need well-drained compost and a sunny position. Sow them directly into the bed or container where you want them to grow. If growing them in a container ensure that it is deep enough for them to send down deep roots, and make sure that it has good drainage.
Above all it is important to use leftover compost and not let it go to waste.
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