Hi: I have an area that used to be a childrens playground area in my
back yard. I am going to convert it to a garden. There is a brick
retaining wall surrounding the new garden area.

I expect I'll need between 8 and 10 cubic yards of dirt/compost for the
garden. At our local landfill they sell some really excellent compost,
reminds me of the land I see when I go thru Iowa. But compost really
isn't dirt/top soil.

Could I use all compost for my garden? If not, what would be a good
ratio for compost to dirt?

"salad" wrote in message
ink.net...
Hi: I have an area that used to be a childrens playground area in my back
yard. I am going to convert it to a garden. There is a brick retaining
wall surrounding the new garden area.

I expect I'll need between 8 and 10 cubic yards of dirt/compost for the
garden. At our local landfill they sell some really excellent compost,
reminds me of the land I see when I go thru Iowa. But compost really
isn't dirt/top soil.

Could I use all compost for my garden? If not, what would be a good ratio
for compost to dirt?

Sure. Most things grow pretty well in compost. We always have volunteers
growing in our compost every year.

On Mar 18, 3:24 pm, salad wrote:
Hi: I have an area that used to be a childrens playground area in my
back yard. I am going to convert it to a garden. There is a brick
retaining wall surrounding the new garden area.

I expect I'll need between 8 and 10 cubic yards of dirt/compost for the
garden. At our local landfill they sell some really excellent compost,
reminds me of the land I see when I go thru Iowa. But compost really
isn't dirt/top soil.

Could I use all compost for my garden? If not, what would be a good
ratio for compost to dirt?

Landfill compost is a VERY bad idea if you're talking about a
vegetable garden, but ok for a flower garden. You have no idea what
herbicides & pesticides have been sprayed on the vegetation before it
was hauled off to the landfill. Certainly not worth a health risk to
save a few bucks.
There is no standard ratio for compost-to-soil, it all depends on the
soil itself. Compost adds organic material to the soil to keep it from
compacting. If you have a heavy soil like clay, you need a lot of
compost. If you have mostly loam soil you need very little compost.
Bob S.

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 22:24:43 GMT, salad wrote:

Hi: I have an area that used to be a childrens playground area in my
back yard. I am going to convert it to a garden. There is a brick
retaining wall surrounding the new garden area.

I expect I'll need between 8 and 10 cubic yards of dirt/compost for the
garden. At our local landfill they sell some really excellent compost,
reminds me of the land I see when I go thru Iowa. But compost really
isn't dirt/top soil.

Could I use all compost for my garden? If not, what would be a good
ratio for compost to dirt?


IMHO,

Use it in your yard. An eating garden, you should have total control
over what was used in the compost and you can't do it with landfill
compost. It's a quality control issue.

later,

tom @ www.NoCostAds.com

salad wrote:

Hi: I have an area that used to be a childrens playground area in my
back yard. I am going to convert it to a garden. There is a brick
retaining wall surrounding the new garden area.

I expect I'll need between 8 and 10 cubic yards of dirt/compost for the
garden. At our local landfill they sell some really excellent compost,
reminds me of the land I see when I go thru Iowa. But compost really
isn't dirt/top soil.

Could I use all compost for my garden? If not, what would be a good
ratio for compost to dirt?

Thanks all for your input. I never thought of the pesticide issue
regarding compost from the dump. I was planning on having it mostly be
a flower garden but also wanted a few vegetables...there's enough space
for them. I'll reconsider my options now.