If buying a full yard of compost doesn't warrant the usage of it all, My Home Depot/Lowe's sell a product called kellogg's 'NRich. Good product to use as either compost OR mulch.

Kevin

I second what Kevin said. IMO nothing beat compost when it comes to amending garden soil. I have done most of it past fall with my home made compost and I will get this stuff sold by HD, called "Steer Manure". Actually it is more of compost than manure. The stuff is the best money can buy : $1.47 per cubic foot bag. That is like 40 bucks for a cubic yard. Which is very reasonable considering that you don't have to buy a whole cyrd. Probably I will get just 10 bags (= $15).
This stuff is cheaper than topsoil.

If yer 'maters like it, then yer peppers will like it. I'd till in some bone meal too, just for grins...

Bone meal is essentially a phosphorus source. I find it pricey. I would just mix in something like 16-16-16. It cost about a buck per pond and it is high enough in phosphorus too. Later on I will fertilizer my plants according to their requirements. Most veggies DO NOT need high dose of "P". I have read somewhere that eggplants do.

Here is what I see at my local HD for $1.67 per bag.

Here is a link that might be useful: HD Composted Manure

I have a trailer, so I could also purchase a 1/2 or 1/3 yard of this from a good local nursery for 22.99/yard.

Not sure what is actually in this "aged compost". I guess I can swing by and ask them.

They also have composted Manure for $39.99/yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aged Compost

I'm not trying to thread jack, I just have some questions along the same line.

Is there a certain amount to add to each Sq ft, or a certain amount of inches to add to the top?

I purchased some 3 way mix from a local nursery that is supposed to be pre mixed with fertilizer. I've added some bone meal as per the instructions, but is there anything else I need to add?

Is there anything else to add later in the season?

OK. As I said before, the stuff called "Steer Manure" is just some kind of compost with some Cow Manure blend. So I just use it as soil amendment not much as a "Manure" to provide lots of fertilizer. It has a nice fluffy texture. I like that and I use it instead topsoil and/or compost. So there is no danger of burning your plants.

In my area compost runs close to $40/cy with tax. You can also get as little as 1/2 cy. (20 bucks for 13 cf) So the bagged stuff at HD is more convenient for me. They use to sell the for 99 cents a few years ago. Now it is gone up by 50%. Still it is a reasonable price, IMO.

I don't do square foot gardening but having read about that method, I definitely take what I can use in my garden. In this case, I buy several brands and varieties of compost and mix them all together. Some are low-cost, some are medium-cost. I haven't yet bitten the bullet to try to add some premium-priced compost, but I hope that combined with my own compost, all the other compost products that I buy will make up for each other's limitations and I will get a compost package that is decent for growing in.

Here and there, I also mix in leaves or other materials for certain sections of the garden. I do this because it's my own thoughts and ideas of what might or might not work for me, so I try out different things in the garden to see the results.

>> the stuff called "Steer Manure" is just some kind of compost
>> with some Cow Manure blend.

Not quite so, Grasshopper. Here's where I get pedantic.

Steer manure is from steer lots. Males castrated to become steers have problems with urethra size. Those done at birth have it worse than those done later. They have bladder problems; google "cattle water belly". The unnatural heavy grain diet they get in the feed lots exacerbates this and they form calculi that clogs the pipes. Thus they feed these doomed creatures a ton of salt. Cheaper than beer, I guess. They even add salt blocks (I wonder if there's a special salt block death mix?)

If the bag says "steer", it's loaded with salt and it's cheaper. If it says "dairy" or "cow", it comes with a premium. There's nothing really wrong with the steer stuff as long as one remembers it's got a lot of salt.

OK. If the "steers" are fed a lot of salt, how does that end up in their manure or urine ? Don't salt (sodium chloride ) break down in the digestion system ? I am sure there will be the element "Na" but not "NaCl" as salt.

They're fed lots of it to encourage them to drink and pee. They're also mad salt junkies and will lick their own urine for more so there's the reason for the salt blocks: diversion for health reasons.

Waterbelly, an internal urinary rupture, is much more common with a grain diet, thus the feedlot association. Bulls and male calves can suffer from it but steers, by dint of castration and hormonal stress, get it more. Cows and heifers not really. Salt is cheap cheap cheap, and increasing the thirst (and therefore the fluid flow) is a cheap remedy.

Open a bag of steer manure/compost blend (like EarthGro which sells for perhaps a dollar and ten cents per cubic foot) and you often find white salt crusting. It even tastes salty. Just ask my Uncle Harry.