In article
,
Higgs Boson wrote:

On May 17, 12:30*pm, Higgs Boson wrote:
Whee! *Saturday, the city of Santa Monica offered free compost, first
come
first served. *My neighbor took me over in his pickup. *Early as we
were,there
was already a line ahead of us. *Finally we got to take our shovels
and heavy
duty plastic bags and dig into the most

What is going on???!!!


...the most BEAUTIFUL dark, fragrant compost. I was expecting a
more granular texture, but this was almost powder fine.

It was a good-natured crowd, shoveling compost into buckets,
plastic bags, trash bins, and making their way to their vehicles with
varying degrees of difficulty.
I scored six bags, which won't go far, so I hope the City does it
again soon.

While there, I also ordered a new compost bin, as the old one was
sagging and
bowed, and not delivering as much compost as I need. This one is a
square
Smith & Hawken Biocompost bin

http://www.consumersearch.com/compost-bins

which looks great and I hope it does well. Only inconvenience is
having to unload
the compost segment by segment in order to "turn" the pile. In my
situation,
it means I have to move a lot of heavy, clumsy stuff around in order
to free
up a space where the compost can be unloaded. But then, that ****
needed
to be moved anyway -- give me a chance throw out a lot of old,
termited
lumber bits, for one thing!

Am also toying with the idea of buying one of their subsidized worm
bins.
A lady I talked to swore by hers, so maybe I'll take the leap. Stay
tuned!

So, wish me luck with my new toy. Now off to write the City to make
this
a regular event!

Hypatia

My area also gives away free compost once a week for years, to the
locals only. Difference is, everyone here lines up with their pickup
trucks and a front loader drops a cubic yard in the back of your truck.
No shovels needed. No getting out of truck. Ten minutes and gone. I am
amazed that some pull up in Ford Rangers and Chevy S10's - Those little
trucks can take it!

--
Enjoy Life... Dan

Garden in Zone 5 South East Michigan.