Compost

[bernest]

I was going to ask this in the organic lawn forum but here might be a better place since the question is about compost. I want to go organic this year right after my first application of Lesco Pre-Emergence herbicide without the fertilizer. I know compost is good to use when starting out with organics, but where do you get it. I see composted cow manure in home centers but it would take a lot of 50 lb bags to cover my lawn. My other question is. I want to start making my own compost in the back yard, so should I start with just a pile of leaves or build some kind of structure for it. I’m not going for the more expensive plastic bins and tumblers. I just want simple pile or cheap bin.

[bpgreen]

I wouldn't buy the bags of compost from a big box store. If there's a nursery or garden center nearby, they may have compost in bulk. Some municipalities offer it for free or at least for a reduced price. The garden centers will usually deliver it for you.

As far as composting in your yard goes, you can build a bin or something, but it isn't necessary. I used to compost in a pile that was just open, but my wife doesn't like the looks so I now have a plasitic bin that I got for next to nothing when the state or county was trying to promote composting to reduce landfill usage. An easy to make and inexpnsive enclosure can be made just by makeing a circle with chickenwire.

[Bestlawn]

Yeah, check with your public works department or department of sanitation. I've heard that some will limit the amount you can take, but it's usually free. Just make sure there is no putrid smell. That will indicate it isn't fully composted yet. You could still take it home and allow it to finish *cooking*.

[GaryCinChicago]

but where do you get it.

Hi there neighbor! Waving from Midway airport.

I found some GREAT compost at a least likely place. They are best known for it's decorative stone selection.

Clarke's Garden Center
2061 E Lincoln Hwy (AKA Rt. 30)
Lynwood, IL 60411
(708) 758-8500‎

They offer two types of compost. A super soil, which is compost, some sand and top soil mixed together and they have pure compost - made of last years grass clippings ... last falls collected leafs ... and composted horse manure.

I bought their compost last year. It was nice, soft, friable and had a great earthy smell to it. I top dressed my lawn with it and the lawn LOVED it. The best part is the price! $24 for a cubic yard (27 square feet) which they just figure to be one scoop from the big loader machine. Bring a pick up truck!!!! Beg, borrow or steal one if you have to!

I-90/94 (Dan Ryan) east towards Indiana. Exit I-394 south to the second exit, Rt. 30 east. 1/2 mile on your left, can't miss the place - it's all wide open space there ... look for the giant concrete gargoyles and the decorative rocks.

Nice people to do business with - very laid back but eager to help for the asking.

PS - If you go during mid to late summer, then travel another 1/2 mile east to two farms that offer "pick your own" vegetables. FYI - the farm on your left (north side of Rt. 30) was my landlord, Tony, an old Italian immigrate, and he is THE BEST to deal with ... $8 - $10, all the tomatoes or peppers you can carry!!! He'll tell you - "Hey, if you don't take it, it's only going to rot! Go help yourself"

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

They offer two types of compost. A super soil, which is compost, some sand and top soil mixed together...

That is a darned clever name for fairly common material. If the unadulterated compost is $24 per yard, this Super Soil should be $5-$10/yard. All that is is free topsoil and free sand with a little compost in it.

The only thing I don't like about commercial compost is the cost. At the application rate of 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet your cost will be $24 per 1,000 square feet plus any delivery charges. In my neighborhood that jumps to $70 per 1,000 including delivery. Whereas even the most expensive commercial organic fertilizer will only cost $6 per 1,000. I use alfalfa pellets and corn meal from a feed store, and the cost is $2-$3 per 1,000.

My compost pile is loose on the ground behind the garage. It is made mostly from other people's leaves I collect during the fall and spring when they put them out on the curb. With a leaf base we toss all our veggie scraps in throughout the year. Occasionally I'll pick up a couple buckets of fresh horse manure from the stable where my daughter rides. Still I don't make enough compost to cover my yard at 1 cubic yard per 1,000. My wife uses it on her veggies, flowers, and herbs.

[Metaxa]

Where to put your compost pile and what to put it into are best answered by your property, I think.

Me...I'm urban, backing onto a stream with woodland behind me, so no pile behind anything. My utility area runs along the north side of my yard so I need some sort of "organization" to it. For me that means a 7 pallet, three bin set up.

And even with that I still don't get enough for my needs. I'm a guy who has done nothing to my lawns for decades except core aerate and top dress with a skiff of compost each fall. I don't really measure but I'll bet I'm well under the 1 yard per 1,000. Almost forgot, I over seed at about half the over seed direction on the bag as well. Sort of slowly replacing my old lawn with new cultivars, with no particular plan.

So I do buy, we have local stuff, the product of wood lot fines and the fish industry, called fish compost. Some add in ground up oyster shells. Here is one supplier/manufacturer: http://www.seasoil.com/

Is there a bar in this forum, I need a drink?

Regards, Metaxa

[andy10917]

There is no bar here, but the Admin puts "special water" into the Water Cooler forum

My compost pile is like yours - it is just a pile with areas for older compost and newer areas. With an acre of property and more mature trees surrounding it then I can count (and a few on it) and the balance in grass, it grows and grows and grows - despite the use. I think I have to move it because one neighbor has taken to calling it "Mount Compost". At it's peak in November of this past year it was 70 ft X 15 ft X nose-bleed height. I'm going to have to buy some nice-looking stockade fence and move it back by the barn. Maybe when it is that far from the house I can add the cleaned carcasses of the salt-water fish that I manage to catch. Does anyone have experience with the odor-management and wild animal control when fish carcasses are added? Does fish count as green material or brown (I'd guess green).

[Metaxa]

I compost crab shells and innards, fish carcasses, clam shells, shrimp and prawn shells all the time.
All I can say is be prepared to up your pile management time considerably if the amount of fish/seafood going in even approaches a bit too much for the browns.

If you let it get away from you, as in having a party sized amount of fish/seafood scraps and even being a day late on turning and adding in browns, the stench will knock you over. I've been playing in the dirt all my adult life and have managed to make some pretty good smells at various times but seafood/fish in the compost tops the list.

If its not too much seafood/fish at any one time but it is regular you could do a compost digestor set up. That is what I use and it handles a lot of stuff that would be problematic in a pile, especially a regular pile in suburbia or in town.

As to wild animal management...bury it deep and smother it well and they still get in. Only thing I can think of is to fence it well or to use a digestor. Or just view the animal intrusions as help in tossing/mixing the pile.

Regards, Metaxa

[Bestlawn]

Mighty good to see you here with us, Metaxa!

[Metaxa]

Mighty good to see you here with us, Metaxa!

Why, thank you. I'm not as scientific as some so I hope there is room for a simple lawn care guy's stories now and then.

Regards, Me

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Metaxa? DUDE! Yeeee Haaa!! I thought you were permanently gone. I am extremely excited to see you here.


For the others, Metaxa was my first online organic guru at GW waaaaaay back when. And, like Bestlawn and some others here, then he was gone...without warning.

Please consider this a safe haven.