I talked at length to an old gardening guy one day about this. His argument was that pretty much all of the chemicals are designed to break down within a certain period. He gave the example of Roundup which is one of the most used. I think he said it breaks down within a few days in the sun and in the dirt. Our city's yard waste is composted for 6 months before ever sold or used. Also, even if there were some chemicals left in the compost, his argument was that it would be such a miniscule percentage that when mixed with the other composts I already had plus the vermiculite & peat moss that it would not affect me in any way.

I went down and got some of the city compost a couple weeks ago and used it in my garden. By volume, it is about 10-15% of my total mix. My new mix is roughly 50% compost and 25% each peat and vermiculite. I am adding it on top of Mel's Mix already left in my garden from last year because I used medium not coarse vermiculite last year, to make up for settling, and also because I am raising the height of my beds 4 inches.

I started my garden on a whim last year because I found a good deal on some seedling transplants. I figured I would plant them in the yard and see what happened. If they didn't grow, it only cost me $10, so no big loss. As I drove home, I was reading the little plastic tags in the 4-packs and was astonished by how much room these cute little itty bitty plants needed to grow! I had bought 12 4-packs. I promptly gave away half of each pack. Plus 2 whole packs that I had duplicated. It left me with 2 plants each of 10 different things.

When I got home, it took my hubby & I several hours over 2 days to dig up the zoysia sod, then many more hours the next weekend to start digging and chopping the heavy compacted clay soil in our yard. The end of that second weekend was about when I discovered the square foot gardening method. Since we had already dug down, I decided to kinda improvise my "raised bed" into a "ground level bed" and fill it with 25% each my clay, compost, peat moss, and vermiculite (I had read that clay soil is very nutrient rich). That is also when we found out that a friend had a little tiller which he let us borrow to finish. Wow, it was ridiculous how much easier that was than a shovel and a hoe !!! The 4x4's that lined our bed were actually set down into the ground and the tops of them approximately ground level. We did dig a lot deeper than just 4", however. Also, I had access to free compost from a horse barn so only used 1 source of compost instead of five. Still though, it performed super well for me. This year I have 7 different sources of compost.

By the way ... that $10 ... hahahaha !!! Have spent sooooooo much more than that over last year and this spring I think my husband is going to go into fits.

By the way, did you try Lowe's ? Our Home Depot only had 1 type of compost but Lowe's had many. Also Walmart had 1 manure & humus compost. Another place to try is people who have horses or big barns. Even if they only have 2 horses, they likely clean the stalls and pile into a big pile. Horse manure needs to compost for a while, so make sure it's not "fresh".

Town compost is just fine, provided you get finished compost. Shouldn't be a problem.

Dan

Thanks all. I'm actually surprised that the responses so far are fine with town compost. I would have thought otherwise.

I'm sure i could locate a local horse place, but how do I know if the manure is aged enough to be safe to use?

Chemistry is the reason why the responses so far are fine with municipal compost. You don't know the manure is safe enough to use. You'll have to ask the locals how they found it.

Dan

My rule of thumb: if it still smells like manure, it isn't safe yet. You definitely don't want it still hot.

I made my beds of 100% composted material at our local compost facility.

I had extremely good results with this. Although the compost I used wasn't exactly what came from everyone's yards. The facility told me the material I was getting was about 80% aged horse manure and 20% compost that was blended in. The horse manure was about 2-3 years old at the point that I used it.

This year I am making another 4 x 20 bed in the front yard - and I'll be filling it with the same stuff. At this time of the year in our zone, the leaves and such that is collected and brought to the facility isn't anywhere near broken down and there are still large particles of leaves. However, a farmer right across the street comes in with his tractors and spreaders and they load him up. He then spreads the compost on his fields so he doesn't have to pay for fertilizer.

Angela12345 made a good point with the Zoysia grass. I have this in my front yard as well. I'm in the process of digging it up. I've taken out a 4 x 20 area so far, and still have 2 x 20 to go. I need the 2 x 20 area to walk between the beds. If I were to just leave the grass there, it would grow right under the wood for the raised beds and begin to take over those beds! Zoysia grass grows like a weed and sometimes even landscape fabric won't stop it! I spent several hours at the end of the season last year pulling out the Zoysia grass that got into the beds. So this year I am going to probably dig a six to eight-inch trench around the beds and see if I can find some kind of thin aluminum and put around the beds to keep the stuff from getting in!

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Now that makes me thankful we have a 4x4 border sunk into the ground as part of our bed edge. I would be so mad if I had raised veggie beds and it had grown under the wood ! My zoysia has spent the last year growing into our natural plant beds in the front yard. I spent part of yesterday pulling zoysia grass out of there. Which led us to talking yesterday about renting a trench bed edger to edge the landscaped areas around our home to control the zoysia. Once the edge is in, we can keep it sharp with a string trimmer/weedeater. You definitely cannot let zoysia overstep it's boundaries. But, what a beautiful lawn we have !! Would not give up the zoysia for anything.

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As a one time buy to first build the bed, I would use municipal compost if you knew the facility was well run and did not use filler from questionable outside sources. However, I would have worries about accumulations of trace chemicals if using it to top off year after year.

One reason I liked the compost facility is because the compost was... FREE!

It would have cost well over $100 to fill in my beds if I were to pay for topsoil at $20 a ton.

Angela - I agree on the Zoysia grass. It is very nice and very drought resistant - so it needs little watering. However, in my zone, we have a tanish-brown lawn from beginning of October (maybe sooner) until about May 25th. So we have only a few months of a nice, green lawn. Really doesn't have that curb-appear during those off-months, but otherwise it takes care of itself, multiplies to fill in spots, keeps weeds under control, and feels nice on the feet.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Our utility company partners with the city to create compost from the leaves and limbs the city picks up and the biosolids from one of the waste water treatment plants. The compost is tested before it is released to the public. I have used it in my raised beds with great results. Here is a link to more information on the process.

Here is a link that might be useful: JEA compost

Man, I wish my town or county would offer free or cheap compost. No such luck here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden blog

I use compost provided for free by the City of Toronto, from the yard waste and green-bin programs. Generally it has worked good for me so far. However, last year the Toronto Star ran an article about the city compost. They found that some of it was not fully composted and some was way too high in sodium. In both cases they suggested that it needed further aging/curing time, and that it should be mixed with soil, not used exclusively for growing plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Toronto Star article about city compost investigation

I just filled up my newest bed with the compost yesterday and also filled in another bed at the same time.

The place charges for it now - $20 for a square yard. But, they also delivered it to me for $20. I had to go back and forth with buckets and any bit containers I could find to fit in the car. Luckily the place is only about two miles away, but filling and then unloading takes a long time.

So, took 2 square yards to fill in the two areas - cost $60! Good thing it was free last year.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

If you're worried about your free municipal compost, collect it in the late fall, early january, and cover your beds with it until you are ready to replant. The worms love it and do a great job of incorporating it into the soil. Alternatively, go into vermicomposting in a big way if you have unaged manure and questionable municipal compost -- let the worms eat through it before you use it. I use my muni compost (free and turned over many times before it's set out) on the base where the roots will reach last, and top it with my own "guaranteed compost" and vermicompost. We also get wood chips for paths. You're right to question, but I would still try a test bed with the muni compost ASAP and do a comparison....you might be surprised at the results!