Nourish garden soil without digging in compost

Digging is exercise according to some gardeners but it might damage plant roots and harm earthworms. It might also break up unseen networks of useful mycorrhizal fungi.

Networks beneath our feet

Recent studies have found plant roots and fungi combine to form a mutually beneficial underground web. These fungi provide nutrients acquired from soil in exchange for sugars photosynthesised by plants.

This web of fine fungal tubes (hyphae) vastly extend the plant’s root system, but it can be damaged or destroyed when you dig an established part of your garden. Of course, some digging is unavoidable, e.g. to put in seedlings or new plants.

Thankfully, we can work on the garden in other ways to improve soil without having to disrupt it.

No-dig soil health improvement

Fallen plant matter breaks down in nature into tiny pieces, and eventually end up as part of soil. With our organic wastes, compost science can help us mirror what occurs naturally but at a faster rate.

The first stage involves compost microbes breaking down wastes. It is odour-free and fast with Bioverter. You produce dark compost soil which is ready to be turned into a soil superfood if it is allowed to mature to finish composting.

Your harvested compost can be matured as a top dressing on garden soil. Place it as a 2-3cm thick layer and protect it with a 5-7cm layer of garden mulch. Mirroring nature, the compost gradually matures or ages into its final stable form which looks, feels and smells like rich soil.

The mulched compost feeds your soil. Its various nutrients find their way to plant roots. It supplies food to beneficial microbes for them to prosper and multiply. This increased biological activity in your soil can reduce pathogens and parasites, helping to boost your plants’ resilience.

Soil health is improved by this no-dig compost maturation.

Compost pop-ups

Compost pop-ups are simple to set up to improve the soil in selected spots. They help maintain good soil health around a young tree or shrub year-round, and reduce watering in summer. Another application is preparing an area for future planting.

We used outputs from Bioverter in our successful compost pop-up trials. Harvested compost was left to mature on the soil within the pop-up, beneath a covering layer of garden mulch and cut up dirtied cardboard (did you know that soiled cardboard shouldn’t go in kerbside recycling bins?).

To support Australian recycling solutions, we used garden edging strips made from soft plastics wastes in our trials.

Compost pop-ups reward you with mature compost that can help unlock the full potential of your garden.