Can you garden without buying bags of compost- if so how

[Sutant0]

I’ve realised how much we spend on compost and I hate the cost, plastic and not knowing what’s in it.

So how do people garden without it? Do people just have a good compost system? Can you use spent compost to grow seeds as I rely on seed compost too. If not how can you make your own seed compost?

Be kind if it’s a stupid question, I’m relatively new to this. 😅

You certainly don’t have to buy compost. You can just plant into the soil or you can start your own compost heap.
Many seeds can be sown direct.

Yes you can use own compost.

We have a three bin compost system. So full and left, one we add to, and one that’s ready to use hopefully.

I have a big garden sieve and sieve the compost if I need it finer for seed compost to start indoor. If compost ready before winter then ideally sieve some then and I keep in lidded ikea box in shed for early seeds.

I'm really interested in this too OP. I want to reduce my plastic waste and also try to garden more organically.

The problem with using your own compost to sow seeds is that it may well have weed seeds or pathogens in it. You would also need to make a fair amount of compost over the year, as it breaks down to a relatively small quantity.

I make my own compost but I tend to put it on the veg patch to provide extra nutrition for the plants there, rather than using it for seeds. I buy in seed compost.

We have five very large compost bins and they serve us well, the only other compost we buy is manure for the rose beds and occasionally some ericacious.

I make compost for adding to beds, but buy seed compost. That might be a starting point for you?

You can buy peat-free compost in non-plastic containers. If you need a lot at once you can get it delivered in large re-useable sacks.

One way or another you’re likely to need to improve your soil for the benefit of your plants, and as a pp said you need good quality disease-free seed compost to achieve reliable germination and onward growth.

I have read of people sterilising (probably not actually sterilising, but close enough) their compost in the oven but that would kill off all the good stuff as well, and is probablyakin to putting a toilet brush in the dishwasher to many mumsnetters.

Get it delivered by the tone if you have space to dump it.

My local waste recycling plant (that deals with garden waste and makes compost from it all) lets you turn up with a bag/tub/trailer and spade and take as much as you can shovel for free. Is that an option near you?

my parent garden without ever buying in compost.
3 compost heaps as described above: first year you add to it, second year you leave it, third year you use it.
don't worry about turning or composition.
if you want to compost food waste you can use a rat proof dalek kind. they also get quite hot and compost quicker.

if you have weeds that seed everywhere you can drown them in water for a few weeks. the resulting liquid is a good plant food (and stinks).

if you have neighbours/friends with rabbits or chicken you can add manure to the compost to add nutrients.

you can use dog shit on compost reserved for flowers (once ready it doesn't stink any more).

Depends on how much weed free organic garden waste + kitchen waste you have compared to how many seeds you sow & pots you plant as to whether or not you can generate enough home-made compost to completely replace bagged compost.

I use homemade & spent bought in compost as a soil improver or mulch and buy in new for seeds and pots. I compost all food and garden waste but don’t generate enough for all I need.

Bought in compost is getting increasingly rubbish though, so I’m trying to buy less.

I buy maybe one bag of compost a year. But I am an experienced composter.

For seed compost I either make leaf mould [make in autumn year 1, it is usually ready by spring in year 3 after sieving in autumn year 2] or buy coir blocks. If I have both I mix them up.

For potting compost I sieve any compost I made the year before, from all the kitchen and garden waste. I usually sieve in the autumn and stash the sieved stuff to mature over the winter ready for potting on in the spring.

I have 3 tumblers which I fill with kitchen waste and when it is nearly done, I run it through the wormery to break it down further and add that [sieved] to the potting compost bin to mature after a few weeks. Then put the next tumbler in [1/3 in each tray].

If you want compost to use in the garden quickly, you can do the Berkeley method of mixing about a tonne of garden waste, kitchen waste, shredded paper, leaves - anything you can find and layer it up with water making all the dry stuff damp, then cover and leave for 3 days, and then turn it onto a pile putting all the outside stuff into the inside and the inside stuff onto the outside and then, every 2 days, keep doing that and you will have about 0.6 of a tonne of compost to use in the garden after 4-6 weeks depending on weather. So if you do that in Feb it will be good to use in April. Again you can leave it a few weeks to mature. I did this in January/February and had enough to fill my polytunnel beds in April when I put my polytunnel up.

I also do cold composting in daleks and empty them out in the autumn, I currently have about a ton of compost maturing from 2 of those ready to be sieved onto the polytunnel beds to top them up and will use the rest where my outdoor cucumbers and courgettes will go. Any left over will go on general veg beds.

Sort of. What are you using compost for, and what kind of compost?

Bedding plants/plants in pots - hard to do without commercial compost because of the quantities and quality needed. However, you can replenish compost with plant food (although that’s not without its question marks). I assume you're saving water so you are pot watering is with free water not tap water. If you look hard you can find unbagged compost to buy. But the solution is to have fewer pots especially of bedding plants.

Compost/soil improver on beds as a mulch - if you have a big enough garden and are a relentless composter you can probably generate as much as you really need. You certainly don’t need to be putting commercial multi-purpose on beds as a mulch.

You can reuse compost for seeds but you will have to start feeding them very early. That said, with peat-free composts you need to feed pretty early anyway. And then you get into the questions about feed contents and packaging.

Edited to add - poster above me, you are Compost Queen!

In addition to a compost heap, I also have a wormery. It works much faster than the heap (although produces much less) but I also use the worm tea to get nutrients back into the beds when once I might have mulched with compost. The worm castings it produces is really rich so seems to work well for seeds.

It’s certainly possible to garden without using any compost at all - all plants evolved originally to grow without it after all. I didn’t start buying compost until I moved from our ground floor flat with a couple of flower beds to our current flat which only has a balcony so everything is in pots. I even used to raise seedlings in pots of soil (admittedly it was particularly good soil from under leaf mould).
It depends what you want to grow. There are loads of flowering plants which prefer soil which isn’t too high in nutrients, especially where you have a sunny position with well draining soil. It’s all about picking plants which would naturally thrive. Some veg demand pampering but some are tougher, peas and beans for example.
Obviously if you have a big garden with space to make compost and material to fill up compost bins that’s great. Failing that, it seems to increasingly be accepted that you can add organic matter to the soil by just bunging it on the surface as a mulch.
If you’re worried about sustainability, then as a minimum definitely avoid compost that’s not peat-free! Some nurseries online sell plants raised in peat-free compost.

I am a horse owner and always have plenty of composted manure to give away. I suggest you contact a local stables and ask them if you can take some.

Make friends with a tree surgeon and ask for free wood chips. Use as a mulch, the worms break it down pretty quickly.

Bulk bag delivery, get soil improver/manure, not topsoil or a mix. This has made the biggest difference to the health of my garden's soil - far more worms and better soil structure.

Plenty of composting advice above already - I'd keep it simple to begin with and see how you get on.

And as above our local garden waste centre, as in the one that’s collects food waste and garden bins from houses hot composts everything.

You can the generally go and collect for free or small fee as well. So might help if you haven’t own compost. Ours is usually free if you just load a few trug buckets full in car, but charges about £10 if you fill a trailer worth.

I can’t say I have ever had a problem with weed seeds in compost really. We compost all garden waste including weeds, some cardboard or paper and all compostable food waste and it’s good usually compost the w next year. We grow a lot of veg from seeds.

I only use compost for containers, not the garden. When we grew vegetables we made our own in bins.

I only use compost for containers, not the garden. When we grew vegetables we made our own in bins.

I buy one bag for seed compost each year and another which i mix 50/50 with worm castings from the wormery for potting on. Use spent stuff and worm castings for potting on also. As a pp said its annoying using spent compost for seeds as you get weeds germinating among them. Its OK for once you've potted on though as the plant you want much bigger - it's easy to fish a few tiny weed seedlings out from around it.

@Shedmistress is indeed the compost queen!

Can you use spent compost to grow seeds as I rely on seed compost too. If not how can you make your own seed compost?
Seeds are a bit like eggs in that they have their own in-built goodness to feed the early-stage plant/chick. Therefore they don't need to take goodness from seed compost.
You can make a very basic seed compost from just well-matured leaf mould. It has structure and holds water but doesn't have much nutrition. You move on to more nutritious compost when you get to the potting up stage. This will be a mix of compost, loam, leafmould and sand.

Huw Richards is trialling an idea that we waste compost by using it where we don't need to; he thinks we should be more careful with this scarce resource. Here's his video to explain.

The bigger garden you have the easier it is to make compost. I have the whole gamut here - daleks, big compost bins, a wormery, bags making leaf mould and I also buy in big bags from a local supplier in spring.

For a good seed compost I would recommend you get a wormery. They are compact and don't take up too much space and produce both a lovely fine soil perfect for seed sowing, and worm tea which you use diluted as a liquid fertiliser.

Yes you never need to buy compost. You also never need to water or do much weeding if you do the following:
Buy two compost bins (one for adding to, while the other one is rotting) or I have recently bought one of the tumble ones with two compartments, which is much quicker. You can often buy compost bins second hand if cost is an issue. Just add it to the top of the soil when it's ready.
If you're building a raised bed, put logs in the bottom. These gradually rot down over years, providing lots of lovely organic matter and also acting like a sponge which holds water. I never had to water unless it was seeds.
Don't dig if you can avoid it, cover the top with wood chips (you can buy these by the ton).
If you can add some biochar that will make the soil even better. There is a great video called 'Terra Preta' which is really worth watching about how biochar can trigger all the good bacteria in the soil, who make the soil better for you.

I can never understand why people make more work for themselves than they need to! If you're interested, there are loads of permaculture videos online.