Still on the subject of compost.?

Question

Thank you all for your helpful contributions to my previous question. Still on the subject of compost, I need lots of it to replace the large quantities of rubble and clay I am removing from a patch of land for cultivation.

Is there a wholesalers or is it as cheap to use a garden center or B&Q.

Is one type better than another and why is peat based compost frowned upon. It's just that some types of compost seem to hype up that they are peat free.

Indiandy

Answer 1

Peat is frowned on because to much is being gathered from natural areas. Contact your local council, ours collects garden green stuff and they turn it to compost for re sale. Any stables near you, horse manure is glorious, makes my beans grow to the sky.

Answer 2

I agree that it might be cheaper to just replace the poor stuff you're removing with black dirt; assuming it's available. I lived in an area that was notorious for red clay (which is horrible stuff) and a lot of the vendors who advertised "pulverized top soil" actually sold a mixture that was a bit high in clay content - that's why it was "pulverized." It looked good out of the dump truck, but after the first rain, you had concrete instead of top soil.

Bagged compost is fine, if you can afford to buy it that way. Yikes. Peat moss might be a tad on the acid side, you'd have to Google that and check on it. Not sure.

If your municipality is large enough to have a composting operation, you can buy it quite cheaply that way.

Any chance there's a vegetable canning operation near you where you could pick up some green plant waste matter cheaply?

Answer 3

It would seem you have a large area to do, you may be a lot cheaper to enquire about replacing with soil rather than compost. Peat compost comes from peat bogs, which are being destroyed by people over harvesting them will end up loosing all our peat bogs if this practise is not stopped

Answer 4

Any horse farms near you? Ask them about well composted manure....it should be allowed to sit for 9 months to a year to sweeten (cook)

Fill dirt is an option. Contact construction companies.

Lime will sweeten soil -- sounds like you have a ton of clay.

good luck.

Answer 5

Contact your local garbage collecting facility (leaf & lawn wate department) Our city collects these leaves and limbs grinds them up and twice a year sale the compost. We buy compost(they call it black gold) for $10.00 a scoop or mulch for $10.00 a scoop. When I say scoop I mean a huge scoop, one scoop will fill up a regular pick/up truck. I haul mine in a dump truck. I live in north carolina and we have clay soil

Answer 6

check you local area for a dirt yard . . especially if you have a truck and can haul it yourself . .

I paid 75.00 for a dumptruck full of mulch the equivilent by wieght to 48 bags of mulch . that was delevered to my house. the added benifit was I lost 7 lb while a shoveled and wheel barrowed the load around my yard,

Answer 7

its a load of shite at the end of the day