Why Fall Is One of the Best Times to Add Compost to Your Garden
When the flowers start fading and the vegetable garden winds down, it can feel like gardening season is officially over. But before you put away the garden tools, there’s one more job worth adding to your fall list: adding compost to your garden beds.
Fall is an excellent time to improve your soil with organic matter. Adding compost now gives your garden months to benefit before the next growing season arrives, helping you create healthier soil and giving next spring’s plants a great place to start.
At Zwart’s Topsoil + Landscape Supplies in Thornbury, we carry Ploughman’s Choice Compost for homeowners, gardeners and landscapers looking to give their soil a boost this fall.
Compost Helps Build Healthier Soil
Great gardens start below the surface.
Adding compost introduces organic matter to your garden soil, helping improve its overall condition. Over time, compost contributes nutrients and supports the living ecosystem within healthy garden soil.
Rather than thinking only about feeding individual plants, think of compost as a way to feed and improve the soil itself.
Improve Your Soil Structure
Not every garden in Southern Georgian Bay has ideal soil, and compost can help improve a wide range of soil conditions.
In heavier soils, organic matter can help create a looser, more workable soil structure and improve drainage. In lighter or sandier soils, it can help improve the soil’s ability to retain moisture and nutrients.
The result is a better environment for plant roots and a garden that is easier to work with season after season.
Let Fall and Winter Help Do the Work
One of the advantages of applying compost in the fall is time.
Once compost has been added to your beds, fall moisture, soil organisms and the natural freeze-thaw cycle of an Ontario winter can help organic matter gradually integrate with the existing soil.
Instead of waiting until the rush of spring gardening season, you can get the job started now and let nature take it from there.
Give Your Spring Garden a Head Start
Spring always seems to arrive with a long gardening to-do list.
Preparing your beds with compost in the fall means one important job is already underway. When temperatures warm and it’s time to start planting, your garden beds have had months to settle and benefit from the organic matter you added.
A little work in October can make getting back into the garden next spring that much easier.
Where Can You Add Compost in the Fall?
Compost can be useful throughout your landscape. Consider adding it to:
Vegetable gardens after annual crops have been removed
Annual and perennial flower beds
New garden beds being prepared for next year
Existing beds where the soil needs additional organic matter
Areas where you’re preparing soil for future planting
Depending on what you’re growing and the condition of your existing soil, compost can be incorporated into the top layer of soil or applied around established plants.
Try Ploughman’s Choice Compost From Zwart’s
Not sure what to use for your fall garden prep? Ploughman’s Choice Compost is available at Zwart’s Topsoil + Landscape Supplies in Thornbury.
Whether you’re putting a vegetable garden to bed, refreshing your perennial gardens or preparing a brand-new garden for next year, adding quality compost is a simple step toward building better soil.
And better soil can mean healthier, happier plants.
Your Spring Garden Starts This Fall
It’s tempting to think of fall as the end of gardening season. In reality, some of the work you do now can set the stage for what happens next spring.
Adding compost is a relatively simple fall garden task that helps replenish organic matter, improve soil structure and prepare your beds for another growing season.
Give your garden a head start on spring with Ploughman’s Choice Compost from Zwart’s.
Zwart’s Topsoil + Landscape Supplies Ltd.
496907 Grey Road 2Thornbury, ON N0H 2P0
519-599-1027
Serving Thornbury, The Blue Mountains, Collingwood, Meaford, Owen Sound and surrounding Southern Georgian Bay communities.
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