Free compost from the city..

billy_prewitt · February 5, 2013

A local suburban community close to me offers free leaf compost each spring. They take all the collected leaves from the neighborhoods run them thru a grinder shredder turn them multiple times over the winter then have the compost for pick up the beginning of March... I plan on getting a couple yards for the garden, flower beds and shrubs.. and a base start for a composing spot.

My question is what would you add/do to make it a better compost..Sand?.. Peat? mycorrhizae (endo/ecto)?.. E.M. (effective microorganisms) Ph balance? fertilizers ?

Since I'm a new member, if there are threads here you recommend I read please let me know

Thanks
Bill

Redbaron · February 5, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by billy_prewitt

A local suburban community close to me offers free leaf compost each spring. They take all the collected leaves from the neighborhoods run them thru a grinder shredder turn them multiple times over the winter then have the compost for pick up the beginning of March... I plan on getting a couple yards for the garden, flower beds and shrubs.. and a base start for a composing spot.

My question is what would you add/do to make it a better compost..Sand?.. Peat? mycorrhizae (endo/ecto)?.. E.M. (effective microorganisms) Ph balance? fertilizers ?

Since I'm a new member, if there are threads here you recommend I read please let me know

Thanks
Bill

I would mow the lawn and save the grass clippings and mix the grass clippings up with the composted leaves.

That should make a pretty good yet simple and cheap concoction for you.

The other option would simply make it a "brown layer" in a lasagna bed.

habitat_gardener · February 5, 2013

My aunt had an acre with lots of massive beech trees in NJ and made leaf mold. They raked all the leaves to the edge of the dropoff, and in a couple years, black gold! She grew mostly ornamentals, but could easily plunge her arm elbow-deep into her garden beds. She'd take "slips" of plants everywhere she went and they'd take off in the rich, fluffy soil.

So if the leaf compost is anything like leaf mold (doesn't look like leaves but like rich dark fluffy matter), I'd add it to shrubs and perennials as a top dressing, maybe with a layer of mulch on top. Shrubs and perennials especially like fungal-dominated compost (made mostly from "browns" such as leaves).

For a veg garden, I would mix it with "greens" such as coffee grounds, kitchen and garden trimmings, etc., to make a more complete (bacterial + fungal) compost. (I wouldn't add any of those other things you mention, but I haven't used EMs.) Many coffeeshops, such as Starbucks, offer free coffeegrounds. If you want to apply it directly to the garden, you could add a layer of leaf compost, a layer of coffee grounds, and then mix them together with the top inch or more of soil. If you wanted to buy something to mix in, it'd depend on your soil, but I might use some alfalfa pellets or seedmeal (sparingly -- you don't want an excess of N in your soil).

Farmette · February 5, 2013

Compost varies greatly. Last yr I got some from the municipal pile. I know it is not organic and one has to be careful, but friends have used it for yrs without trouble. I filled several raised beds with it and didn't add anything. I also paid for a load of mushroom compost mix and put that in another part of the garden. I expected the mushroom compost to outperform the municipal, but it was exactly the opposite. I have never grown tomatoes such as those grown in the municipal mix, which is mostly leaves, and rotted plant material.

FILMNET · February 5, 2013

I take 2 years here our city does this, huge pile only leafs and paper bags of leafs. Really black after 2 years, they sell it to landscapers who mix it with dirt,Its to black. And a little to us, But i put some in my Compost, to get it working. No more for me i got bad disease.

nativeplanter · February 5, 2013

When I built my 12 raised beds, I filled them with 1/2 topsoil and 1/2 compost from the local waste center. I later found out that the topsoil was already a blend, so I probably had somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 compost. But the soil in the beds looked great - nice and black and rich. Unfortunately, it seemed that the compost was not finished when they sold it to me, and for the whole first year my garden was starving for nitrogen. Everything was yellow and lanky. It was so frustrating after having put in so much work to build the beds. At one point I even resorted to dousing some of the beds in diluted industrial ammonia (the kind without the surfactant) just to give the plants some instant relief. They greened up for a little while, then yellowed again. The following year was much better once the compost was able to decompose some more, but I learned a lesson about the variability of quality in municipal compost.

zeroma · February 6, 2013

Bill,

Go for it. Compost, if it is done will be Ph neutral, so I won't mess with trying to adjust that. Have you had your soil tested? If this is your first year with veggies, you might want to do that. You will know for sure what might be needed. Organic material is always good to add.

I might add worms, like the fishing bait earth worm/night crawlers, or make the beds comfortable for worms to just want to move in. Layer with a few layers of newspaper for that. I use a mix of shredded paper (from our home office shreder) coffee grounds, veggie scrapes in rubbermaid containers right now, and will be adding this once we start warming up.

Free is always good.

Hotwired · February 6, 2013

Great find, but beware of municipal mulch. No sense in importing other peoples problems. I took my garden tractor over to the woods for leaves and discovered decades of composted leaves about a foot deep. I took the top a little bit from everywhere. Twenty trailer loads later I was exhausted, but it was some of the nicest black gold ever.

clkeiper · February 6, 2013

I, too, would be leery of using city compost, even if it is supposed to be all leaves, there is no assurance of such. There could be 2-4d in it from yard grass clippings....I have seen it happen already. As stated by hotwired, disease could be present already. We have a state of the art recycling facility in our county...if I toss a bag of diseased tomatoes in the trash, where do I think it will wind up? probably in the compost pile, not the landfill area. This is just my opinion...And do a soil test. SEND it to a soil lab, not just that little Ph test strip or that little test kit from the garden center. Those really aren't very accurate, only a ballpark figure and when growing tomatoes 6.5 is a world away from 7.0 for the plants ability to utilize the nutrients available in the soil.

peebee · February 7, 2013

Hotwired, could you drive some of that compost over here? Dang, some of you guys are so lucky to have great organic material available!

We can't use the "compost" a local city offers here; several years ago a neighbor went in his truck to get a load of some for both of us. He came back with a shocked look and empty truck and I looked in a bucket where he brought back a sample: bits of glass (!), metal, and plastic were clearly visible in the horrible, unfinished mess. I fired an email to the Los Angeles County dept responsible for this offering, saying they should stop unless there is supervision available for all the people dumping their waste there. Never heard back.

bboomer · February 9, 2013

Would you say the same thing about municipal wood chips? I can get tons of it for free. It's just so tempting......

easttx_hippie · February 9, 2013

I wouldn't put anything directly into my garden if I was not absolutely positive there was never any weed killer used on it. There's an article about killer compost in the newest Mother Earth News that makes me scared to use any compost I don't know the complete source of. It seems the weed killer survived being processed into commercial livestock feed, survived passing through the animals, and survived having the resulting manure being composted. It then destroyed a lot of good crops and caused major problems for a lot of folks.....especially the company that thought they were selling some great organic compost.

habitat_gardener · February 10, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by bboomer

Would you say the same thing about municipal wood chips? I can get tons of it for free. It's just so tempting......

There's usually a big pile of mulch (chipped branches mostly, so it's part green/moldy) at the community garden, so for several years I've been piling the new mulch in the paths and then waiting for at least 6 months before I use it in my garden beds. I'm always pulling weeds out of the paths, so I guess that means the mulch is not toxic.

But yeah, I'd test some seeds in it before having a big pile of mulch or compost delivered.

BigBrownDogHouse · February 20, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotwired

but it was some of the nicest black gold ever.

That pile of dirt brings out the little boy in me. Makes me want to grab some Tonka trucks and jump in.

Dirt looks great.....I wish I lived further out in the country......some day!

JamesL · February 7, 2013

Hotwired,
Did you shovel that by hand? I don't see a front loader on that tractor.
You need to put a hot tub on your list of projects.

February 5, 2013	#1
billy_prewitt Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: dayton ohio Posts: 19	Free compost from the city.. A local suburban community close to me offers free leaf compost each spring. They take all the collected leaves from the neighborhoods run them thru a grinder shredder turn them multiple times over the winter then have the compost for pick up the beginning of March... I plan on getting a couple yards for the garden, flower beds and shrubs.. and a base start for a composing spot. My question is what would you add/do to make it a better compost..Sand?.. Peat? mycorrhizae (endo/ecto)?.. E.M. (effective microorganisms) Ph balance? fertilizers ? Since I'm a new member, if there are threads here you recommend I read please let me know Thanks Bill

February 5, 2013	#5
FILMNET Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: North Charleston,South Carolina, USA Posts: 1,803	I take 2 years here our city does this, huge pile only leafs and paper bags of leafs. Really black after 2 years, they sell it to landscapers who mix it with dirt,Its to black. And a little to us, But i put some in my Compost, to get it working. No more for me i got bad disease. Last edited by FILMNET; February 5, 2013 at 09:58 AM.

February 6, 2013	#8
Hotwired Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Ithaca, NY - USDA 5b Posts: 241	Great find, but beware of municipal mulch. No sense in importing other peoples problems. I took my garden tractor over to the woods for leaves and discovered decades of composted leaves about a foot deep. I took the top a little bit from everywhere. Twenty trailer loads later I was exhausted, but it was some of the nicest black gold ever. __________________ Give a man a fish and he eats for a day - Teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

February 6, 2013	#9
clkeiper Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: ohio Posts: 4,350	I, too, would be leery of using city compost, even if it is supposed to be all leaves, there is no assurance of such. There could be 2-4d in it from yard grass clippings....I have seen it happen already. As stated by hotwired, disease could be present already. We have a state of the art recycling facility in our county...if I toss a bag of diseased tomatoes in the trash, where do I think it will wind up? probably in the compost pile, not the landfill area. This is just my opinion...And do a soil test. SEND it to a soil lab, not just that little Ph test strip or that little test kit from the garden center. Those really aren't very accurate, only a ballpark figure and when growing tomatoes 6.5 is a world away from 7.0 for the plants ability to utilize the nutrients available in the soil. __________________ carolyn k

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February 5, 2013	#3
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	My aunt had an acre with lots of massive beech trees in NJ and made leaf mold. They raked all the leaves to the edge of the dropoff, and in a couple years, black gold! She grew mostly ornamentals, but could easily plunge her arm elbow-deep into her garden beds. She'd take "slips" of plants everywhere she went and they'd take off in the rich, fluffy soil. So if the leaf compost is anything like leaf mold (doesn't look like leaves but like rich dark fluffy matter), I'd add it to shrubs and perennials as a top dressing, maybe with a layer of mulch on top. Shrubs and perennials especially like fungal-dominated compost (made mostly from "browns" such as leaves). For a veg garden, I would mix it with "greens" such as coffee grounds, kitchen and garden trimmings, etc., to make a more complete (bacterial + fungal) compost. (I wouldn't add any of those other things you mention, but I haven't used EMs.) Many coffeeshops, such as Starbucks, offer free coffeegrounds. If you want to apply it directly to the garden, you could add a layer of leaf compost, a layer of coffee grounds, and then mix them together with the top inch or more of soil. If you wanted to buy something to mix in, it'd depend on your soil, but I might use some alfalfa pellets or seedmeal (sparingly -- you don't want an excess of N in your soil).

February 5, 2013	#4
Farmette Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 985	Compost varies greatly. Last yr I got some from the municipal pile. I know it is not organic and one has to be careful, but friends have used it for yrs without trouble. I filled several raised beds with it and didn't add anything. I also paid for a load of mushroom compost mix and put that in another part of the garden. I expected the mushroom compost to outperform the municipal, but it was exactly the opposite. I have never grown tomatoes such as those grown in the municipal mix, which is mostly leaves, and rotted plant material.

February 5, 2013	#6
nativeplanter Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Hampton, VA Posts: 86	When I built my 12 raised beds, I filled them with 1/2 topsoil and 1/2 compost from the local waste center. I later found out that the topsoil was already a blend, so I probably had somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 compost. But the soil in the beds looked great - nice and black and rich. Unfortunately, it seemed that the compost was not finished when they sold it to me, and for the whole first year my garden was starving for nitrogen. Everything was yellow and lanky. It was so frustrating after having put in so much work to build the beds. At one point I even resorted to dousing some of the beds in diluted industrial ammonia (the kind without the surfactant) just to give the plants some instant relief. They greened up for a little while, then yellowed again. The following year was much better once the compost was able to decompose some more, but I learned a lesson about the variability of quality in municipal compost.

February 6, 2013	#7
zeroma Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 637	Bill, Go for it. Compost, if it is done will be Ph neutral, so I won't mess with trying to adjust that. Have you had your soil tested? If this is your first year with veggies, you might want to do that. You will know for sure what might be needed. Organic material is always good to add. I might add worms, like the fishing bait earth worm/night crawlers, or make the beds comfortable for worms to just want to move in. Layer with a few layers of newspaper for that. I use a mix of shredded paper (from our home office shreder) coffee grounds, veggie scrapes in rubbermaid containers right now, and will be adding this once we start warming up. Free is always good.

February 7, 2013	#10
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	Hotwired, could you drive some of that compost over here? Dang, some of you guys are so lucky to have great organic material available! We can't use the "compost" a local city offers here; several years ago a neighbor went in his truck to get a load of some for both of us. He came back with a shocked look and empty truck and I looked in a bucket where he brought back a sample: bits of glass (!), metal, and plastic were clearly visible in the horrible, unfinished mess. I fired an email to the Los Angeles County dept responsible for this offering, saying they should stop unless there is supervision available for all the people dumping their waste there. Never heard back.

February 9, 2013	#11
bboomer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 67	Would you say the same thing about municipal wood chips? I can get tons of it for free. It's just so tempting......

February 9, 2013	#12
easttx_hippie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Piney Wood Hills Posts: 423	I wouldn't put anything directly into my garden if I was not absolutely positive there was never any weed killer used on it. There's an article about killer compost in the newest Mother Earth News that makes me scared to use any compost I don't know the complete source of. It seems the weed killer survived being processed into commercial livestock feed, survived passing through the animals, and survived having the resulting manure being composted. It then destroyed a lot of good crops and caused major problems for a lot of folks.....especially the company that thought they were selling some great organic compost.

February 7, 2013	#15
JamesL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Long Island NY Posts: 1,992	Hotwired, Did you shovel that by hand? I don't see a front loader on that tractor. You need to put a hot tub on your list of projects.