If your compost is complete it will work for you. We use a small amount of nutrients that are derived from rocks mined from the earth, and placed only in the root zone of the plants in our garden on a weekly basis. We limit our beds to a width of 12 inches and use very little fertilizer, just half an ounce per linear foot. of that half an ounce, only .2 ounches of it is a "salt" .