Is spring a good time to apply compost?

Compost, sometimes called "black gold, or organic matter, consists of garden and kitchen waste that over time breaks down to become a very rich, healthy soil amendment known as humus. No, it's not the spread for bread and crackers!

Compost is a natural fertilizer that enhances soils for every kind of plant, including lawns. It helps soil hold moisture and get crumbly, which are both essential for good plant establishment and growth.

Spring is an ideal time to spread compost because you can warm and nourish the soil around where your perennial flowering and foliage plants are emerging, and improve the soil around shrubs and trees before they have leafed out to help them conserve the moisture they need as we move to summer.

Compost also improves drainage in clay soils which helps plants get the moisture and air they need around roots. You can use compost as a mulch to prevent weed seeds from getting the sunlight and air they need to sprout. It also prepares beds for planting by aerating, conserving moisture and amending nutrients in the soil for seedlings and young trees and shrubs.

If you are reseeding a lawn, you can spread a thin layer of compost over the seeds to protect them from drying out while improving the soil they will sprout in.

You can buy compost from either a landscaping nursery or a home improvement store. You can also create it yourself in your yard in a 3-by-3-foot pile, about 3 feet tall, by adding brown, carbon and nitrogen rich yard waste, such as autumn leaves, non-chemically treated grass clippings, perennial plant stalks and seedless weeds. You can also add overripe fruits and vegetables, peelings, coffee grounds and eggshells to the compost pile all year long.

You need to turn the pile periodically and keep it damp to get the microorganisms within the pile working so that the organic materials "cook" down to humus - the earthy, rich, soil-like substance you can sift and spread over your garden beds.

I have found that hardware cloth over a wheel barrel works to sift the compost as I shovel it out of the pile for use.

- Nancy E. Degnan

• Provided by Master Gardeners through the Master Gardener Answer Desk, Friendship Park Conservatory, Des Plaines. Call (847) 298-3502 or email northcookmg@gmail.com.