Should You Make Your Own Compost or Buy It?
Many gardening articles encourage homeowners to start composting, and for good reason. Compost improves soil structure, supports beneficial soil life, helps retain moisture, and contributes nutrients that plants need to grow.
But if you're new to gardening, you may wonder whether it's worth making your own compost at all. After all, compost is readily available at garden centers, landscape suppliers, and even some municipalities.
The truth is that both approaches work. The best choice depends on your space, available materials, gardening goals, and how much time you want to invest.
The Benefits of Making Your Own Compost
Making compost at home allows you to recycle materials that might otherwise be thrown away.
Kitchen scraps, grass clippings, fallen leaves, spent annuals, and garden trimmings can all become valuable organic matter instead of ending up in a landfill. For gardeners who enjoy reducing waste and creating a more self-sufficient landscape, home composting can be very satisfying.
Homemade compost also gives you complete control over the ingredients. You know exactly what went into the pile and how it was managed.
Perhaps most importantly, homemade compost is essentially free once you have a composting system in place. If you have a large garden and a steady supply of organic materials, the savings can add up over time.
The Limitations of Homemade Compost
Many new gardeners are surprised by how little finished compost a typical household actually produces.
Kitchen scraps shrink dramatically during decomposition because much of their weight comes from water. A year's worth of vegetable peels, coffee grounds, and fruit scraps may only produce a modest amount of finished compost.
For gardeners with large flower beds, vegetable gardens, extensive landscaping, or multiple raised beds, homemade compost often supplies only a portion of what they need.
Time can also be a factor. While composting itself isn't difficult, collecting materials, maintaining piles, and waiting for decomposition requires patience.
The Benefits of Buying Compost
Buying compost offers immediate results.
Instead of waiting months for organic materials to decompose, gardeners can purchase finished compost and begin improving their soil right away. This is especially useful when establishing new garden beds, filling raised beds, planting shrubs, or improving poor soil.
Purchased compost is also convenient. Many gardeners simply don't generate enough compostable material to meet their needs, while others may not have the space for a compost pile.
For small gardens, the cost of bagged compost is often modest compared to the time and effort required to make it yourself.
Not All Compost Is Equal
Whether you're buying compost by the bag or by the truckload, quality matters.
Good compost should be dark, crumbly, and smell earthy. It should not smell sour, rotten, or strongly of ammonia. Most of the original ingredients should be difficult to recognize. Composts made from a variety of organic materials are often preferable because they tend to provide a broader range of nutrients and organic matter characteristics.
If possible, examine the compost before purchasing large quantities. Quality can vary significantly between suppliers.
The Hybrid Approach
Many experienced gardeners use both homemade and purchased compost.
Kitchen scraps, leaves, and garden debris are composted at home throughout the year. When larger quantities are needed for new planting beds, vegetable gardens, or landscape projects, purchased compost fills the gap.
This approach provides many of the benefits of composting while ensuring there is always enough compost available when major projects arise.
Don't Overlook Leaves
One of the biggest misconceptions about composting is that kitchen scraps are the primary source of compost. In reality, many homeowners produce far more compostable material from their yard than from their kitchen.
A mature shade tree can generate an enormous volume of leaves each autumn. Shredded leaves can be composted, used as mulch, incorporated into garden beds, or added to sheet composting projects.
For many gardeners, leaves are the single most valuable free source of organic matter available.
Which Option Is Right for You?
If you enjoy gardening projects, have available space, and generate a steady supply of organic materials, making your own compost is a rewarding way to improve your soil while reducing waste.
If you have limited space, limited time, or need large quantities of compost quickly, purchasing compost may be the more practical choice.
Fortunately, this isn't an either-or decision. Many successful gardeners combine both approaches and enjoy the advantages of each.
The Bottom Line
The best compost is the compost you actually use.
Whether it comes from your own backyard pile or a garden center, compost remains one of the most effective tools for improving soil health. It helps build better soil structure, supports beneficial soil life, improves moisture retention, and contributes to healthier plants.
For most homeowners, the question isn't whether homemade compost or purchased compost is better. It's simply finding the approach that fits their garden, lifestyle, and available resources.
Continue Exploring Composting
Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your results, these guides can help:
Home Composting Made Simple
Learn the easiest ways to compost using piles, bins, tumblers, and sheet composting.
Composting Secrets: Simple Tips for Making Better Compost Faster
Learn how airflow, moisture, temperature, and ingredient selection affect compost quality.
How to Apply Compost: When, Where, and How Much to Use
Find out how much compost to use, when to apply it, and whether it should be mixed into the soil or spread on top.
Beyond the Compost Pile
Explore worm composting, bokashi systems, food recyclers, and community composting programs.
Continue Building Healthy Soil
- Learn more about soil structure and how long takes to build healthy soil
- Find out how to tell if your soil is healthy and how to conduct simple soil tests
- Discover who and what is living in your healthy garden soil
- Learn the best and most efficient ways to water and why every garden needs a rain gauge