Starting my Garden / Is the Compost from the City Safe to use?

[jamieneenah]

Hello;

I am starting a garden, making a raised bed, so I will need a fair amount of material.

My neighbor has been successful with a lot of landscaping, and he has used almost all compost from the city for his yard. I am wondering however if this compost is really good or safe to use for a garden.

It is pretty well broken down, and looks like dirt / soil. As far as I know it is just the leaves / chipped down material that the city collects and then they let it sit for a year or two to make what they call compost.

Do you think this would be safe to use in a vegetable garden or do I want to get a higher quality product then this? And if I use it in my garden, do I still need / want to mix it with top soil? If so, how much?

The dirt in the yard here is full of rocks and clay and is extremely hard to work with, so I think the raised garden is mainly going to need to be filled with dirt / compost we bring in.

Thanks
Jamie

 

[patandchickens]

Personally I would use it, as long as it was not weedy and did not kill seeds/plants. (See another current thread for more discussion on the topic), since you really need SOMEthing. However getting a small am't to test, first, would not be a bad plan.

But, it just depends where you lie on on the paranoia continuum. (OTOH if you are way towards the one end, where you don't want any trace of anything at all suspicious in your veg garden soil, it is going to probably take you a looooong time to amass sufficient 'clean' compostable material to make very much bed area... this is just the tradeoff inherent in being picky)

I'd mix some soil in too, as much or more than there is compost, assuming you can get some decent topsoil. You'd probably be best tilling it into your existing soil, though -- clay is NOT A BAD THING once you amend it with sufficient organic material, and rocks only have to be removed from a bed once (and can be used for other purposes then).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jamieneenah]

Personally I would use it, as long as it was not weedy and did not kill seeds/plants. (See another current thread for more discussion on the topic), since you really need SOMEthing. However getting a small am't to test, first, would not be a bad plan.

But, it just depends where you lie on on the paranoia continuum. (OTOH if you are way towards the one end, where you don't want any trace of anything at all suspicious in your veg garden soil, it is going to probably take you a looooong time to amass sufficient 'clean' compostable material to make very much bed area... this is just the tradeoff inherent in being picky)

I'd mix some soil in too, as much or more than there is compost, assuming you can get some decent topsoil. You'd probably be best tilling it into your existing soil, though -- clay is NOT A BAD THING once you amend it with sufficient organic material, and rocks only have to be removed from a bed once (and can be used for other purposes then).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Thank you. We have started using the city compost. I have not seen anything sprouting in it. Unlike bags of stuff they sell at walmart that have weeds actually sprouting out of the sides of the plastic bags!

Thanks
Jamie