Biodynamic compost
The answer is sweetly summed up in
the soil food web diagram (see below). It
shows a complex community of critters that is a whole ecosystem unto itself
but is mostly invisible to the naked eye.
This is a glimpse into the web of life
forms that dwell in the skin of the earth
and it’s also a diagram of a wild feeding
frenzy combined with an orgy, going
on 24/7. Plants have evolved with this
web of interactions—with processes
like the symbiotic relationship between
themselves and fungi and especially the
nutrient cycling that goes on whenever
a microbe is swallowed by a predator and
pooped out back into the soil. Gardeners of all levels of experience would be
wise to explore this fascinating aspect
of working with plants. “Start teaming
with microbes, and get that biology into
your soils and working for you”, say Jeff
Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis in their
popular book Teaming with Microbes: A
Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Foodweb.
Always use the best-quality compost
you can find. Make your first assessment with the compost testing tools
you already possess—your eyes and nose.
There are some obvious visual clues:
there should be very few, if any, pieces of
recognizable woody bits or other plant
material, and you should look for the
color of dark chocolate—about 70 per
cent cocoa content. As far as smell goes,
anything other than a pleasant, earthy
smell is a bad sign.Your nose is giving
you an early warning that something
went astray in the composting process
and that that particular compost doesn’t
belong in your garden.
“
The same
standards should apply
when you’re buying
compost—ask questions
and know exactly what
you’re buying.
”
Compost is a fertilizer. It’s not standardized, so producers typically don’t list
NPK on their bags. Growers still need to
know what nutrients they’re getting in
compost, though—and that’s where lab
reports come in. Ask the manufacturer
for a copy of the lab reports on their
compost, both the nutrient an