How do you use compost?

I dug into my first-ever compost pile today, and it looks like its almost ready to use. So.....how do I use it? Do I work it into the soil when Im planting new plants? Can I spread it over the ground around already established plants? I mulch nearly all my plants, and Im not thinking that would look very good to have compost spread on top of the mulch, would it even work? Just how DO you use this stuff??

Mulch IS compost, just at a different stage. As is the garden dirt.

Technically mulch should be what keeps the weeds down and the water in the soil. If you are using compost as fertilizer, I suppose you will want to work it in closer to the roots, or below the mulch.

Here is how I use compost -- 3000 sf of lasanga beds laid out this fall (manure, leaves, shredded shrubbery, etc at least 6" thick). By spring it will have decomposed rather nicely and be ready to grow something.

I use mine to topdress. When I weed around plants, or dig out the grass around them, I bring a bucket of compost and just throw a thin layer down. If I have a lot of compost, I spread it on the garden and dig it in when I plant. Or, I remove dirt from a planting hole and mix it half and half with compost and plant.

Most of mine goes into soil manufacture in raised beds. But when I have an area not producing well I rake back the mulch and place it under and respread the mulch over it. This I feel keeps the compost next to the soil and allows the mulch to keep it moist while the wormies and others feed on it and drag it into the sub, top, and all soil.

Laugh at me, but I use my compost to heat my (make shift) GH.My GH house only goes up when necessary,and it is usually in the winter , I have an enclosed end at the back that I build a HOT compost pile,and most days I have to leave the back flap open for releaf.This idea is perfect for tropicals,too much for orchids,but great for hard wood cuttings.Yes,I was a poor ki8d,but never dispaired. Mike

Mike, what a great idea! You must have been from Iceland in a former life. I have a temporary/occasional greenhouse as well, and since it's right by the compost area...

mqiq77 -- nothing to laugh at there. Not many people realize that in the 19th century most of the vegetables consumed out of season in urban areas like Paris were produced in "hot beds" with glass cloches -- the heat was produced by the thousands and thousands of tons of horse manure that ended up in the streets back then. The vegetable growers would charge the city a fee to collect the manure then recycle it to heat (and fertilize) their growing beds. Pretty neat, huh?

Interesting! I don't doubt it one bit,out of a need ,comes invention. Mike

That is interesting.