On 29 Mar 2004 06:13:24 -0800, wrote:

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?

People have suggested a few places - here's a few mo

1. Does your city have an industrial composting program yet? The City
of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) does, and you can take away as much
compost as you can shovel into your vehicle from the pick up point at
Centennial Park in Etobicoke.

2. Police horse stables. If you don't add the poop to your beds
directly (and wait a year) add it to your compost to decompose. Your
pile will heat up in a hurry.

3. Dig chopped leaves into the beds in the fall. The earthworms will
munch down on them during the rest of the fall and early spring.
Presto! - instant soil improvement.

Will the nurseries (where i buy tomato plants) sell bags of it?

Yes.

I know supermarkets have bags of peat moss and potting soil, do they
also have compost?

Possibly.

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.

Ask around your office or shop and find out who rides horses. Then,
ask if they or their stable would mind if you removed some of their
manue pile. That's what I did, and I got a free supply as a result.
Horse manure contains a lot of undigested grass and grain seeds, so
adding it to the compost heap for further processing is a good idea.
The heat generated will kill the seeds.

Shirley Hicks
Toronto, Ontario