Some people say that ‘you need a lot of compost for no dig gardening to work’. This is true, but the word ‘lot’ is a value judgement – let’s consider the historical perspective first.
Until recently there was much animal manure available to most gardeners, and nightsoil from their own households too. This animal and human ‘waste’ was used to grow food.
Now, many animals are on huge farms and only smallholders or those with horses have manure available. Human sewage is treated as ‘dangerous’ waste even though, for example, all Parisian sewage was used to grow abundant vegetables in the gardens of Gennevilliers less than 110 years ago.
Since the advent of artificial fertilisers, it has become accepted that all nutrients needed for growth are available in packets or sacks that you can buy, and their use is ‘quicker and easier’ than using manure or compost.
While this argument is true to a point, it ignores the aspect of soil health, and by implication our own health. I have found that low yielding soil can be brought back to a productive state by use of plentiful but not always nutrient rich compost and composted manure. Vegetables grow healthily too and many visitors comment on their lustrous appearance. The soil has come back to life and nutrients that were already there but inaccessible, have become available to plant roots.
This is the value of compost, a term I use for composted animal manure too – and human manure if you have a compost toilet. It is all bringing soil back to healthy and productive life. Although manure is less available than in the past, there is more green waste compost available, and I urge you to use it in good quantity – see the post on ‘how much compost’.
