COMPOSTS AND FERTILIZERS - Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Growing in Small Spaces - page 21

3
COMPOSTS AND FERTILIZERS
When you're growing in pots or tight planted raised beds, you can't just use ordinary garden
soil. It won't contain the nutrients your crops need to grow properly in the limited space and
is unlikely to drain well enough.
Although plants, like us, need water, just like us they can drown if there's too much.
The roots need some oxygen and keeping them in a pool of water where they exhaust the
oxygen means they'll keel over and die.
Compost is one of the most confusing terms in gardening. When used as a verb, as in 'I've
composted the kitchen waste', it's a reference to the magical process whereby waste materi-
als are converted to a useful plant food.
When used as a noun, as in 'multi-purpose compost', it describes a multitude of different
materials with different properties and is interchangeable with 'growing medium'.
Making Compost
Since we're talking about small space gardening, I'm going to assume you don't have a lot
of room for multiple compost bins and the time to turn them over and so on to make your
compost.
If you only have a patio or balcony to play with, then really I'd forget about making your
own compost. If your council run a green or kitchen waste collection service, then it's better
to give it to them to process. If they don't, then ask them why not!