5 tips for topdressing compost

It's important to manage the quality and maturity of your compost pile. When your compost is mature, you can use it to increase positive soil flora and prevent soil erosion. Learn how to add top-dressing to your garden and reap the benefits.

No two compost piles are alike. They're actually little ecosystems with their own preferred conditions, needs, and temperaments. The quality of the compost depends on a variety of factors, including the pH level, maturity of compost and toxic substances, and seeds or worms present. High quality compost contains nutrients and has good water-holding capacity without being too wet.

The quality of the compost may affect how quickly or well it breaks down. To ensure your compost is mature, let it break down thoroughly and use worms to speed up the process. You'll know if it's mature because it'll smell earthy and have a dark brown colour, similar to the colour of soil.

Spread an equal amount of quality, mature compost over the surface of your lawn, but make sure the tips of the grass poke out to prevent scalding your lawn. Deposit little piles around your yard, then rake them into the lawn and water them. Within a couple of weeks, the compost should settle in and disappear from view.

In the spring, apply top-dressing to the surface of the soil around the base of the plants. Don't worry if the annuals haven't sprouted past this layer yet. They will eventually do so. Don't rake this time, because the worms hard at work in the soil won't like it, and neither will the fungi. Finally, apply a layer of mulch and water it.

Top-dressing your plantings and lawn is an excellent way to prevent soil erosion. Soil erosion happens if there aren't enough plants to hold the soil down or if there isn't enough soil to hold the plants down. Top-dressing builds the soil and gives plant roots something to hold onto.

Increasing positive soil flora is another benefit of top-dressing. Flora includes microorganisms, such as the beneficial bacteria that breaks down food and produces heat, and the worms that process compost through their bodies until it resembles soil.

Make sure anything you put in your compost is something you'd want to eat. Avoid adding chemicals that kill microorganisms and concentrate heavily in plants. As you build healthy soil with compost and mulch, you'll enjoy strong, healthy plants.