Penny,
I find it interesting that you make a distinction between leaf mulch and
compost. I thought that leaves are a possible component of making mulch.
I mix in leaves with grass clippings, etc. (browns and greens work well
together) to produce a black mulch after they are composted. I would not
recommend putting uncomposted leaves directly into the garden. I also like to
get leaves that have been run through a lawn mower. It helps them
break down faster. Some of the stuff at these waste management places are
just straight leaves scooped up from the curb where they were raked. When
I scavenge for leaves, I look for those where the resident used their bag
catcher to cut the lawn and pick up leaves at the same time. This gives the
advantage of chopped up stuff with leaves and grass together. My neighbors must
think I'm nuts going down the streets poking into different
piles looking for the right stuff.

Sherwin D.

Penny Morgan wrote:

Look in your phone book for a waste management center or your local trash
companies. They usually have an area that they use to make leaf mulch and
compost from pickup from residential customers. It's the most cost
effective place to get quantities of it.

Here in Raleigh, NC, we can get a whole pickup load for $18 on compost and
$12 for leaf mulch. Leaf mulch is very good for plants too because it
decomposes into the soil while retaining moisture and keeping weeds down.

If you only need small quantities, you can get bags of compost from Home
Depot or Lowes Home Improvement or a local garden center. You'll pay more
in the garden center though.

I'm renting a large pickup this Friday and getting as many loads as I can of
leaf mulch and compost to mulch under newly planted trees and to fill raised
beds and to spread over a large hill that I'm planting perennials on (bad
run on sentence). My veggie garden has already been tilled with
compost/manure this past fall, so I won't need any there.

Good luck,

Penny
zone 7b - North Carolina
wrote in message
om...
I have my compost bin out in the back but i only really filled it up
just as it froze last fall. So i'm not expecting to have a whole lot
ready for this year. Even if everything in there composted instantly
it still wouldn't be much.

I have a new garden plot (grown one season of veggies so far) that is
pretty much clay with the small amount of topsoil i dumped on it last
year. All the advice i've got is to dig a lot of compost into this
plot. So where does a city bound veggie gardener get compost?

Will the nurseries (where i buy tomato plants) sell bags of it?
I know supermarkets have bags of peat moss and potting soil, do they
also have compost?
I'm going to check if my city might be giving out compost to residents
at some point this season.
I've never actually met a farmer in person so i can't imagine choosing
a random farm, driving up, knocking on the door and asking if they
sell compost.

So what do i do?