Thanks Huw 😊 After reading your post about the role of compost and watching your video, we decided to use readily available leaves to mulch the beds on our allotment in the autumn instead of using up our limited supply of home made compost. So far so good 😊👍🏻 They are steadily breaking down.
Our plan is to use our compost as the precious resource it is and put it where we need it when planting out our veg.
Yes, I have done the same on one of my veg beds. Others I’ve left covered with self seeded forget me nots, linaria, ammi and other weeds and will plant veg in between when the forget me nots come out. The final bed I covered with compost as usual - we will see which one does best!
The fire is a great analogy and illustrates the points you are making perfectly. Following your recent compost posts I too mulched some beds this autumn with a mix of wood shredding and leaves and general plant detritus. I look at them now early spring and they are all well populated with worms and life. Feeling positive going into the growing season.
The distinction between addition and activation resonates with something I’ve quietly observed in my own beds. A layer of finished compost can look immaculate — but when you pull it back, the soil sometimes feels settled rather than dynamic.
Not unhealthy. Just stable.
By contrast, when I lay fresh organic layers — leaves, stems, small woody prunings — the response is immediate and visible. Worms surface. Insects move in. Fungi begin stitching things together. It feels like the system waking up.
Your campfire analogy captures it well.
Compost behaves like embers — steady, reliable, stabilising.
Fresh organic matter is the fuel — variable, energising, activating.
Both have their place.
Where I think this conversation becomes unhelpful is when compost is framed as either a cure-all or something to move beyond. It’s neither. It’s a tool — and a very good one — but soil health is the relationship between structure, biology, organic matter, water and time.
What matters most, as you say, is understanding function.
Thanks for continuing to bring nuance into a space that often defaults to dogma.
Your welcome Huw. Whilst your followers greatly outnumber my own we seem to share similar ideas we are happy to pass on. I think for many, compost envy puts a lot of people off ever starting.
Having watched your videos for years now, I have loved how you're thinking and understanding have evolved, and have changed my own. I think this email is the best thing you've written. Thank you
I think you make a very good point. Slightly unfinished compost makes sense but I would leave chop and drop until the growing areas are harvested .
Leaving heavy layer of plant residue surely creates hidden areas for unwanted bugs plus could the soil microbes incorporate your growing crop to be part of material to be broken down or would the plant stave off this process.
What I've found is that mulching over winter leaves little residue come bring that I can take off should I wish. Too much pests is an imbalance in the system, and converting from one to another can create some teething problems which is what Joshua Sparkes experienced and now he has the most "slug friendly" garden with the most incredible results!
Having just got our first year’s compost heap ready to use in this garden we’re treating the stuff like gold.
I appreciate your advice and guidance on how to use it compared with mulching and will take these thoughts with me through the year. Thanks 🙏 very much.
Also, I garden in a tilled community garden with fairly sandy soil (on an ancient Delta), which has always meant that I've used limited compost for specific plants. This has me thinking I need to do more with mulch. It will all get killed in again next spring.
Huw, I'm so glad you've really clarified the whole soil web for people to understand. This is such important stuff! I have your books, and I love to hear your passion for growing food in your videos. It was such a great idea to grow the bocking 14 comfrey next to your compost bin! Brilliant. And I also love that you're not afraid to express your frustrations as well, both with things that haven't worked in the garden as you've liked, and when people sometimes misunderstand your intent. Please keep being real, and educating the masses about the fascinating things that happen in the soil. ❤️
I love this idea too. I’ve ordered and received some roots of it, and I have it resting in pots outside until the soil in my garden is thawed and workable. I’m excited to grow it!
Thanks Huw 😊 After reading your post about the role of compost and watching your video, we decided to use readily available leaves to mulch the beds on our allotment in the autumn instead of using up our limited supply of home made compost. So far so good 😊👍🏻 They are steadily breaking down.
Our plan is to use our compost as the precious resource it is and put it where we need it when planting out our veg.
Thanks again for your clear videos and posts.
Hi Jo! That's awesome to hear! You're most welcome, I'm glad they're if value ☺️
Yes, I have done the same on one of my veg beds. Others I’ve left covered with self seeded forget me nots, linaria, ammi and other weeds and will plant veg in between when the forget me nots come out. The final bed I covered with compost as usual - we will see which one does best!
The fire is a great analogy and illustrates the points you are making perfectly. Following your recent compost posts I too mulched some beds this autumn with a mix of wood shredding and leaves and general plant detritus. I look at them now early spring and they are all well populated with worms and life. Feeling positive going into the growing season.
I love this so much Judith! Isn't it so nice to see that life?! Have a fantastic spring
Huw,
I really appreciated this piece.
The distinction between addition and activation resonates with something I’ve quietly observed in my own beds. A layer of finished compost can look immaculate — but when you pull it back, the soil sometimes feels settled rather than dynamic.
Not unhealthy. Just stable.
By contrast, when I lay fresh organic layers — leaves, stems, small woody prunings — the response is immediate and visible. Worms surface. Insects move in. Fungi begin stitching things together. It feels like the system waking up.
Your campfire analogy captures it well.
Compost behaves like embers — steady, reliable, stabilising.
Fresh organic matter is the fuel — variable, energising, activating.
Both have their place.
Where I think this conversation becomes unhelpful is when compost is framed as either a cure-all or something to move beyond. It’s neither. It’s a tool — and a very good one — but soil health is the relationship between structure, biology, organic matter, water and time.
What matters most, as you say, is understanding function.
Thanks for continuing to bring nuance into a space that often defaults to dogma.
— Simon
Thanks so much Simon, glad you enjoyed this piece and a lovely summary!
Your welcome Huw. Whilst your followers greatly outnumber my own we seem to share similar ideas we are happy to pass on. I think for many, compost envy puts a lot of people off ever starting.
Agreed. However, wood is not a quality soil amendment. Tons of reasons.
Having watched your videos for years now, I have loved how you're thinking and understanding have evolved, and have changed my own. I think this email is the best thing you've written. Thank you
Wow Kathy that is such a lovely comment thank you so much!
I think you make a very good point. Slightly unfinished compost makes sense but I would leave chop and drop until the growing areas are harvested .
Leaving heavy layer of plant residue surely creates hidden areas for unwanted bugs plus could the soil microbes incorporate your growing crop to be part of material to be broken down or would the plant stave off this process.
What I've found is that mulching over winter leaves little residue come bring that I can take off should I wish. Too much pests is an imbalance in the system, and converting from one to another can create some teething problems which is what Joshua Sparkes experienced and now he has the most "slug friendly" garden with the most incredible results!
Having just got our first year’s compost heap ready to use in this garden we’re treating the stuff like gold.
I appreciate your advice and guidance on how to use it compared with mulching and will take these thoughts with me through the year. Thanks 🙏 very much.
you're so welcome Yasmin!
This makes so much sense. I definitely intend to use mulch rather than just compost on my beds and around my fruit trees - it is what nature does.
Both!
Once again, huw articulates a conclusion I've come to by trial, error and observation. I will have to find room on my shelves for the new book 😊
Ahh thank you Mike!
Also, I garden in a tilled community garden with fairly sandy soil (on an ancient Delta), which has always meant that I've used limited compost for specific plants. This has me thinking I need to do more with mulch. It will all get killed in again next spring.
Thanks Huw, great article! :)
Thanks for reading Aranya!
You're doing some great action learning research.
I love your fire analogy.
Thanks Huw,
I appreciate your reflections and your focus on principles rather than dogma. Keep going ❤️
Totally agree here Huw
Thank you so much Gem! 😊
Excellent! I am with you and how you frame this discussion. Compost IS a tool! 😊 ✌️
thank you Kevin!
And....a VERB. 🤪🤣🤦
and in my case a NOUN. Lol.
Really helpful. Thank you Huw.
Happy to help!!
Huw, I'm so glad you've really clarified the whole soil web for people to understand. This is such important stuff! I have your books, and I love to hear your passion for growing food in your videos. It was such a great idea to grow the bocking 14 comfrey next to your compost bin! Brilliant. And I also love that you're not afraid to express your frustrations as well, both with things that haven't worked in the garden as you've liked, and when people sometimes misunderstand your intent. Please keep being real, and educating the masses about the fascinating things that happen in the soil. ❤️
I missed that about the comfrey. Can you explain?
Yasmin, I’m so sorry, I’d found this in a separate video. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nrp6KkazSqQ
Brilliant. I knew it was good for a liquid feed but hadn’t thought of planting it next to the compost bin.
✅
I love this idea too. I’ve ordered and received some roots of it, and I have it resting in pots outside until the soil in my garden is thawed and workable. I’m excited to grow it!
I'm going to do it too. Good to meet another vegan!
I’m so glad to meet another vegan too! ❤️