If you want a productive home garden, add nourishing compost, preferably homegrown. Judith Anthony, whose unusual raspberry trellising system is profiled in the Spring 2024 issue of Northern Gardener, is a Hennepin County master gardener who raises chickens and grows much of her own food on a small one-quarter acre lot in Crystal,Minn. She shared her compost tips during my interview with her last summer.

Judith’s system involves four bins, each measuring about 3-by-3-by-3 feet. That size produces enough decomposition for the pile to heat up enough to make compost fairly quickly. Most gardeners know that to make compost you need brown materials (dried leaves, etc.), green materials (plant debris, grass, vegetable peelings), air and moisture. You can make compost passively by piling up the materials and letting them slowly decompose. To produce better compost quicker, you need to manage the process more. Here’s Judith’s approach:

• She turns her compost piles every two to three weeks to introduce air, which helps the piles heat up.
• She feeds her compost weeds, chicken litter from her backyard hens, grass clippings and dried leaves as well as vegetable waste.
• She uses a compost thermometer to make sure the pile is cooking at the proper temperature. Many weed seeds will die at 130 degrees F, according to the Weed Science Society of America. For really tough weed seeds, such as bindweed, the pile must maintain 145 degrees for 30 days! If your pile does not heat up that much, pull weeds for the compost pile before they go to seed or keep the seed heads out of the compost pile.
• If the activity seems slow or the pile doesn’t seem hot enough, Judith adds alfalfa meal, green sand, lime or a bag of composted manure to get it going.
• Judith rotates her compost among the bins and pulls compost for the garden from the bins that are most finished. While you don’t need four bins to make finished compost, having two will really up your compost game because you can have one for fresh materials and one that’s nearly ready.

More tips

Over the years, I’ve heard (and tried) many compost tips. Here are a few others that work well.

• Make sure your pile stays relatively damp, especially in dry weather. Sprinkle with the hose, if necessary.
• Put your pile in the shade, and maybe out of sight. One way to hold moisture is to place your pile in the shade, out of hot sun and drying winds. Consider your neighbors when placing your compost pile. While compost should not stink, it’s not the most beautiful part of your garden either. I’ve put mine behind an evergreen at the rear of the yard and near a backyard fence. Judith’s bins are shaded from the street and neighbor’s eyes by a tall fence.
• Compost starters provide microbes and nitrogen to rev up the process. Adding garden soil, some older compost or a handful of fertilizer will provide many of the same benefits at a lower cost.
• When is your compost finished? A well-managed pile will be ready in four to nine months. A leave-it-alone pile will take one to three years.
• Plant rhubarb near the compost pile. What?? Back in the day, I had a rhubarb plant that I just tossed down where an old compost pile had been. It grew really well and produced tons of rhubarb. When I was at Judith’s house, I noticed she also had rhubarb near her compost. Rhubarb loves a rich soil and there’s no place better than near the compost!

Why compost?

There are so many reasons to use compost in your garden. It improves fertility and tilth (that fluffy texture that’s perfect for seed germination and root growth). Compost makes a fabulous mulch—2 to 4 inches will suppress weeds.

If you reuse potting soil from year to year as I do, compost is the best amendment for improving tilth. Another compost tip? Make it 30 percent of the volume of soil in your containers. You’ll still need some fertilizer for bloom-heavy plantings, but the texture of your containers will be perfect. One last reason to make your own compost? With the increasing presence of jumping worms, making your own compost is a good way to keep any problems contained at home and to prevent introducing any issues from other yards or gardens via community compost piles.

Mary Lahr Schier is a longtime Minnesota garden writer. Follow her on Instagram at @mynortherngarden­_mary.