WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it with
organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves, mulch -
anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

Chuck
jurgens..at..bellsouth..net

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

If you have a pickup, or a helpful friend with one, you can buy a load
of compost for $16 from Wake County yard waste recycling facility, on
New Hope.

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

meexie wrote:
If you have a pickup, or a helpful friend with one, you can buy a load
of compost for $16 from Wake County yard waste recycling facility, on
New Hope.


If you are going for organic organic material, that might not be the
best place. You would never have control over what other people have
used in their yards chemical wise. Some chemicals break down, others do not.

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:27:45 GMT in . net Chuck Jurgens wrote:
I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it with
organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves, mulch -
anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

If you're looking for just organic material,
try your county dump.
Wake and Orange county both offer compost,
but it may be more effective to track down the commercial
composting firm in Goldston, NC that Orange County uses.

If you are looking for duck squeezer compliant organic material,
ask jo.

--
Chris Dukes
Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil

Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

"Chuck Jurgens" wrote in message
ink.net...
I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it
with organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves,
mulch - anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

Chuck
jurgens..at..bellsouth..net


You might also be interested in knowing if the mixture has been
sterilized. If not, you will get *a lot* of weeds.

If you don't care, go to a local horse farm, they usually have lots of
manure around for the taking. Try to get it from the oldest part of
the pile you can, it will smell less.

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

Jo wrote:
meexie wrote:

If you have a pickup, or a helpful friend with one, you can buy a load
of compost for $16 from Wake County yard waste recycling facility, on
New Hope.


If you are going for organic organic material, that might not be the
best place. You would never have control over what other people have
used in their yards chemical wise. Some chemicals break down, others do
not.


I just picked up a load 2 weekends ago - it's $18, and it's a LOT of
compost. It may be 2.5 yards, but it's really dense and compressed - by
the time you shovel it out you've got closer to 3.5 yards by my rough
guess. The compost is excellent - completely rotted down and very rich,
but as Jo says you have no idea what's in there. I use it for
ornamentals, save my homemade "organic" compost for the veggies.

BTW, I rented a pickup truck for the day to go get it - could probably
have gotten two loads, but that's a whole lotta shovelling :-) For ~$60
total, you couldn't have that much compost delivered, so I think it's a
great deal.

They also sell "mulch", but it's full of trash. Plastic bags, soda
bottles, etc.

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

john smith wrote:
Jo wrote:

meexie wrote:

If you have a pickup, or a helpful friend with one, you can buy a load
of compost for $16 from Wake County yard waste recycling facility, on
New Hope.


If you are going for organic organic material, that might not be the
best place. You would never have control over what other people have
used in their yards chemical wise. Some chemicals break down, others
do not.


I just picked up a load 2 weekends ago - it's $18, and it's a LOT of
compost. It may be 2.5 yards, but it's really dense and compressed - by
the time you shovel it out you've got closer to 3.5 yards by my rough
guess. The compost is excellent - completely rotted down and very rich,
but as Jo says you have no idea what's in there. I use it for
ornamentals, save my homemade "organic" compost for the veggies.

BTW, I rented a pickup truck for the day to go get it - could probably
have gotten two loads, but that's a whole lotta shovelling :-) For ~$60
total, you couldn't have that much compost delivered, so I think it's a
great deal.

They also sell "mulch", but it's full of trash. Plastic bags, soda
bottles, etc.



Great on the description. I wouldn't mind some for my tree planting this
year.
Thanks for the heads up on the mulch too!

Jo

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

The yard waste centers are the quickest way to get the materials.
It is true that you can't control what is sprayed on them prior to
composting. However, one would hope that a good bit of anything present
is going to be diluted by the much greater volume of untreated material,
and degraded by the composting process. At least, it never stopped the
weeds from eventually pushing through on my lot.

Other less reliable sources include tree chippings from some of the
smaller arborists, who might otherwise have to make a longer trip to a
dump; bags of leaves (this is the wrong time of the year for it) that
will be collected in the fall (make sure to ask before treading on
other's property); and manure and used bedding from equestrians.

The best place to get the latter (manure and bedding) is from a boarding
farm, where there will be a much greater quantity available. (When I've
asked, I've also volunteered to help with the stall cleanout.)

The other option is to grow it... a green manure can produce a lot of
plant material that you can turn in come fall. Clover comes to mind.
(See http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/covercrop.html)

Clays actually have a lot of nutrients in them, and it is usually the
consistency that people worry about more than the fertility. I've heard
of people using gypsum to loosen up certain kinds of clays, but this Web
page - http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00012.asp - (by an NC
extension associate) says that the clays in this area don't need it.




Chuck Jurgens wrote:

I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it with
organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves, mulch -
anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

Chuck
jurgens..at..bellsouth..net

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

Chuck, you need to be careful what you ask for!!!!

Seriously, I have some rather coarse and -- and if you want its pedigree,
I will introduce you to the ledge in my front yard.

Also, I must respectfully take Mitch's post a bit further (I can get away
with that, I think, since we seem to be the lone 2 posters who garden in
sand!) -- In addition to beware of what was sprayed on the "compost,"
consider what the compost comprises!!!

Anne


"Mitch Amiano" wrote in message
...
The yard waste centers are the quickest way to get the materials.
It is true that you can't control what is sprayed on them prior to
composting. However, one would hope that a good bit of anything present is
going to be diluted by the much greater volume of untreated material, and
degraded by the composting process. At least, it never stopped the weeds
from eventually pushing through on my lot.

Other less reliable sources include tree chippings from some of the
smaller arborists, who might otherwise have to make a longer trip to a
dump; bags of leaves (this is the wrong time of the year for it) that will
be collected in the fall (make sure to ask before treading on other's
property); and manure and used bedding from equestrians.

The best place to get the latter (manure and bedding) is from a boarding
farm, where there will be a much greater quantity available. (When I've
asked, I've also volunteered to help with the stall cleanout.)

The other option is to grow it... a green manure can produce a lot of
plant material that you can turn in come fall. Clover comes to mind. (See
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/covercrop.html)

Clays actually have a lot of nutrients in them, and it is usually the
consistency that people worry about more than the fertility. I've heard
of people using gypsum to loosen up certain kinds of clays, but this Web
page - http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00012.asp - (by an NC
extension associate) says that the clays in this area don't need it.




Chuck Jurgens wrote:

I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it with
organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves, mulch -
anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

Chuck
jurgens..at..bellsouth..net

WTD: Organic material - manure, leaves, etc.
 

Chuck Jurgens wrote:
I have some really bad soil (clay) in my yard and want to ammend it with
organic material. Looking for free and/or cheap manure, leaves, mulch -
anything I can til into the soil to help enrich it.

Chuck
jurgens..at..bellsouth..net



I found this place online. I don't know how great they are, but I will
be checking into it and will post how it went.

http://www.areamulchandsoils.com/soil_mixes.html