Urban/suburban sources of compost?

[dragonjaze]

I've started a compost pile this summer, but it's small, and will not be ready for a while yet. Even if it were ready, it's not enough for the size of my garden.

I've contacted local city and county governments, and they do not offer compost to residents.

The only compost offered in the local home centers are the bags of either "mushroom compost" or "steer manure", neither of which I'm impressed with, plus being rather expensive.

I don't have the budget to order bulk from a nursery or landscaping supply, not to mention have the muscle to move it all off my driveway in a day so we can park.

I need a source that I can take a few small rubbermaid-type storage totes to once a week or so and fill up, so I can fit them in my tiny compact car.

Craigslist is giving me no leads. There were ads for "composted horse manure" in the spring, but they all wanted to load up pickups, not have a crazy lady with a shovel come take a bucket or two every week.

Where can I look? My garden was brand-new this spring, made in raised beds from poor quality soil, and I need to get a whole lot of compost in it this fall.

If you had a tiny car, no budget, and needed compost quick, where would you look?

[COSunflower]

You should still call the composted horse manure ads as they may not mind you bringing your totes each week. Also put an ad up yourself saying that you need a source of compostable manure but have to gather it in buckets to fit in your car. Someone close by may have a horse, cow, goats, llama etc. and welcome you.

[Danaus29]

Leaves! It's almost time for some people to start bagging their leaves. If you have a chipper/shredder you can use it to chop them into little bits. Or you can dump them in the yard or garden and chop them with a mower.

[Paquebot]

I totally agree with COSunflower that a followup call to those manure ads is in order. Give them a sob story about how you tried everyone else and that you would only need X number of gallons at a time and will shovel it yourself. I swear that every horse stable within 5 miles of here has a gardener tapping into their manure pile. There's even a local dairy that makes its cow manure available to hobby gardeners.

Martin

[willow_girl]

I have had people bring a trunkful of Rubbermaid totes to get cow manure. Some have driven a considerable distance for it, too!

[Shrek]

Originally Posted by dragonjaze

I've started a compost pile this summer, but it's small, and will not be ready for a while yet. Even if it were ready, it's not enough for the size of my garden.

I've contacted local city and county governments, and they do not offer compost to residents.

The only compost offered in the local home centers are the bags of either "mushroom compost" or "steer manure", neither of which I'm impressed with, plus being rather expensive.

I don't have the budget to order bulk from a nursery or landscaping supply, not to mention have the muscle to move it all off my driveway in a day so we can park.

I need a source that I can take a few small rubbermaid-type storage totes to once a week or so and fill up, so I can fit them in my tiny compact car.

Craigslist is giving me no leads. There were ads for "composted horse manure" in the spring, but they all wanted to load up pickups, not have a crazy lady with a shovel come take a bucket or two every week.

Where can I look? My garden was brand-new this spring, made in raised beds from poor quality soil, and I need to get a whole lot of compost in it this fall.

If you had a tiny car, no budget, and needed compost quick, where would you look?

Go to a bait shop and buy yourself two or three cups of red wigglers and start your own indoor vermicompost unit. One tote will yield you three or 4 cubic feet of high quality compost every 6 weeks or so in addition to reducing kitchen wastes and shredded paper. It will also make a pleasurable indoor winter hobby.

Here is an easy to build worm bin that works well when kept under a CFL light to keep the worms from wandering

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

[imthedude]

what i did for my garden this last winter was to place an ad on craigslist that i was looking for free horse manure and that they needed to be capable of loading it in my truck with either a tractor or bobcat. i bet i got 50 replies of farmers or horse people looking to get rid of massive piles of poop. if you do the same, i bet you will too.

[dragonjaze]

Originally Posted by Shrek

Go to a bait shop and buy yourself two or three cups of red wigglers and start your own indoor vermicompost unit. One tote will yield you three or 4 cubic feet of high quality compost every 6 weeks or so in addition to reducing kitchen wastes and shredded paper. It will also make a pleasurable indoor winter hobby.

Here is an easy to build worm bin that works well when kept under a CFL light to keep the worms from wandering

http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

Shrek, I'm embarrassed to admit that I tried a worm bin last winter. And managed to kill them all. Twice

I read for hours, tried all sorts of things...ended up with a stinky mess of dead worms, and the man-creature finally made me quit trying, because he was tired of hearing about worms this and worms that, and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT MESS IN THE CONTAINER?!?

I am incapable of keeping worms alive, it seems. Thankfully, my dogs, cats, birds and (some) houseplants fare a bit better.

[dragonjaze]

Originally Posted by imthedude

what i did for my garden this last winter was to place an ad on craigslist that i was looking for free horse manure and that they needed to be capable of loading it in my truck with either a tractor or bobcat. i bet i got 50 replies of farmers or horse people looking to get rid of massive piles of poop. if you do the same, i bet you will too.

That's the problem, I don't have access to a truck or anything able to haul large loads, nor do I need that much!

My garden is only 160 sq ft.

[jwal10]

Get 3 rabbits, use the manure, mow the leaves in the neighborhood, bag any and all grass clippings (ask your neighbors) add your compost along with a couple bags of steer or chicken manure and buy a bag of peat moss. Mix together and dig into the soil of your beds and plant winter rye or oats with peas. Make sure to inoculate the pea seed. Mow down in the spring and double dig into the beds. Think small for big result....James

[blynn]

You could ask your neighbors or friends to save their kitchen scraps for you to bulk up your compost pile. Provide them with empty ice cream pails and come by regularly to pick them up. Be sure you give them a run down on what can actually be composted. (We have a friend who visits and has tried to put meat scraps and cigarette butts in the compost. Um, no.)

My husband built me a three bin composter for our back yard, got the plans out of a Victory Garden book. It's nice because we still have someplace to pitch our scraps and weeds when a batch of compost is near ready to be put to use in the garden.

Is there a local coffee house that might be willing to save coffee grounds for you?

Lay damp cardboard on the grass at night, in the morning collect the worms under it, and relocate them to your compost bin.

[How Do I]

Originally Posted by dragonjaze

If you had a tiny car, no budget, and needed compost quick, where would you look?

Exactly where it is produced. Farms. When we used to pick up our horse manure at a local stable, he loaded into the back of our pickup with a front loader. The guy that ran the place would have let me haul it off in thimbles if that's all I needed. He loved getting rid of that stuff.

We've since found a local farm that will let us have as much as we need. We haul it off in five gallon buckets until he gets his front loader fixed. Just place an ad in your local craigslist that you need so much manure and that you will have to haul it in whatever you have.

[Paquebot]

The 5-gallon method is the one that I've used for 35 years. 1976 Ford LTD always had 8 pails and a shovel in the trunk for 10 of those years. Next was a 1986 LTD but could only handle 5 pails. Now have a 2000 Ford Ranger which will hold 18 pails. That's very popular in early spring when gardening friends find a source of manure but have a car with the cargo capacity of one medium suitcase. "Martin, can I borrow your truck to get a load of manure?" has never resulted in a turn-down but usually I also end up driving. Thus far, every place that has given permission to get some manure has been on a repeat "help yourself anytime" basis. Only one has a gate involved which must be left the way it is found. At every source that we're involved in, it was the gardener who made the first move either directly or through a mutual friend. As with everything else, doesn't hurt to ask. Even a farmer with 640 acres to spread it on may be willing to share a few gallons. If he refuses, he just might feel as bad for you as you would if he said no.

Martin

[Shrek]

Originally Posted by dragonjaze

Shrek, I'm embarrassed to admit that I tried a worm bin last winter. And managed to kill them all. Twice

I read for hours, tried all sorts of things...ended up with a stinky mess of dead worms, and the man-creature finally made me quit trying, because he was tired of hearing about worms this and worms that, and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT MESS IN THE CONTAINER?!?

I am incapable of keeping worms alive, it seems. Thankfully, my dogs, cats, birds and (some) houseplants fare a bit better.

Don't be embarrassed. None of us attain the "Zen" of vermicomposting the first time out or necessarily the second or third time.

Even after we achieve the required Zen factor to realize regardless how many "experts" we study and understand that none are as well versed instructors as the worms themselves we continue to learn from the worms through Zen style observation.

My first foray into indoor bin vermicomposting was in a 950 sq foot apartment and I killed it off three times in the first year at a loss of $3.75.

The second year I had a worm bin coffee table in my living room in addition to the two totes in my storage closet and was selling or trading 4 or 5 cups of bait a week during fishing season.

In later years I supplied a few bait shops until the route work got to be too much with my other interests and commitments and sold my route.

Now in my retirement I keep 5 to 8 truck toolbox bins for my own use and to dispose of household wastes, paper shred and dog hair shed while advising folks of the fact that professional worm farm retailers are not necessary to start and grow a home vermicompost operation and money can be saved on start up and as the worm farmer learns from the worms and gives them a happy home, the herd will be able to finance any expansions.

Some points most experienced growers fail to understand and commercially produced worm bin start up sellers purposely avoid as it reduces their equipment sales are that the worms are the ultimate teachers , locally purchased worms are less expensive and a low cost small start up allows more affordable failure steps to ultimate success and most of all a bin environment is an artificial confinement farming environment so steps must be taken to replicate a worms natural environment as much as possible while still confining the herd to its bin pasture just as cattle in a fenced pasture are tended.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to tell you what my worms have taught me over my lifetime.

[NickieL]

lol call the tree trimming services around you, they often will dump thier wood chips on ya for free..and they are hot and steamy and composting. Use that to mulch everything and to start a compost pile.

Also, check craigslist. A couple years ago I got sheep and llama poo, already composted! I have a tiny car too, so it takes some trips. I push the back down so that I have more room in the hatch, put down a tarp, and filled bags and bags of the stuff. (bags fit better then tubs or boxes and you can get a lot more in there...) I get free big plastic bags from work while unloading medical supplies (they come in the bags, so I'm re-using and not haveing to spend money on them)

[willow_girl]

Now have a 2000 Ford Ranger which will hold 18 pails.

So do I, and YUP!

I have a couple raised beds I can't get a wheelbarrow to, so I filled them by carrying manure in 5-gallon buckets.

Usually I just line the bed with a tarp, though.

[geo in mi]

You can go to your local TSC or similar store and buy some horse oats. Slightly pricey, about $.50/lb, but a fifty pound bag will make quite a lot of compost, and you could also plant some of them for green manure. Make a flat box, spread about a two to three inch layer and keep it wet for a few days. The three to four inch sprouts(greens) and the hulls(browns) will make a pretty good compost when mixed into your pile of any other scrounged materials. More costly than buying them after they have been through the horse, but weed free and you might save some gas money in the process.

Surprising, with all the emphasis on community gardening these days, many cities and villages are not yet enlightened(liability issues, you know) to provide the reverse service of giving away leaf compost--although they have to vacuum them off the curbing each Fall. That's our village--they just rot away back in the village property...... I'm going to put a bug in my neighbor's ear--she's the garden co-ordinator, maybe she can get some dumped on the garden spot instead.....

geo

[jwal10]

Shredded junk mail,newspaper and any used paper towels spread in the fall work to attract worms....James

[Shrek]

Originally Posted by jwal10

Shredded junk mail,newspaper and any used paper towels spread in the fall work to attract worms....James

I use my thread bare or pet stained 5 by 6 foot rubber backed carpets in out of view tall grass areas to harvest indiginous worms. The rubber helps kill and precompost the grass under and helps retain moisture as the worms feed on the photosynthisis deprived grass. After a couple months I slide the carpet over and harvest the bare spot and usually collect 40 or 50 banded Eisenia fetidia and E. andrei .

A carpet discarded from household service usually lasts for 2 to 4 years of outdoor attraction trap use before it deteriorates too far and starts falling apart when being moved.

[dragonjaze]

thanks for all the great replies!

I finally found a place that will let me fill up my own containers, but they have a minimum purchase of 30 gals. What luck that my square 32 gallon trash can on wheels will fit in the back seat of my car. I'll have to tie the lid shut with some ratchet straps, but I think it's doable.