BOOK REVIEWS

Compost
The natural way to make food for your garden

Ken Thompson
Published by Dorling Kindersley
Distributed by Penguin
$NZ45.00

BRITONS produce about 500kg of waste per person per year, half of which could be composted. Incinerated waste adds to the carbon dioxide and landfill waste emits methane, both implicated in global warming. More widespread composting, Thompson argues, will help not just your garden, but also the planet.

The author is a plant ecologist and senior lecturer at Sheffield University who writes regularly for gardening magazines to promote the science behind gardening. In this small book he explains the science behind compost, how to make compost and what to make it in. And when it comes to using compost Thompson is adamant: digging is for dummies.

Soil is not improved, he says, by being chopped into small pieces, arguing that there are just two reasons for digging – to alleviate soil compaction from trampling or machinery or to remove deep-rooted weeds.

The answer is to apply compost as mulch. Tests show it works just as well, if not better, than when it is dug in.

Although the composting process will be familiar to many, this book’s timely message is worth the price.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH