The value of compost

Normal garden compost, that any gardener can make from any back garden or allotment, is the best thing to nurture your soil. Think of compost like sourdough starter. When you apply a 2.5cm (1in) mulch – 5cm (2in) at most – you are not ‘feeding’ the soil as such, but recharging it. Adding compost made largely from plants grown in your own soil will add an intense dose of bacteria and fungi back into the ground, and stimulate the dynamic that is already there – even in soil that seems unpromising. Life is already in the soil. It knows what to do.