Why, it’s Cedar Grove Potting Soil!
Yesterday, Matt and I did something fun. We drove about 1/2 hour away, to Cedar Grove Composting, which composts the yard and food waste from Seattle residents.
Check your local waste management company to find out if they sell yard waste - chances are they do, and there are a lot of good reasons to support them. But before I go into them, I have to tell you about the crazy experience!
How Does It Work?
You drive down a lo-ooooong road seemingly to nowhere until you find this sign:
You go inside and pay your very small amount of money to a friendly staff. Then you drive over to the potting soil yard, and wait for the most gigantic bulldozer you’ve ever seen to come meet you:
You note the gigantic bulldozer is a Volvo, and watch as it picks up the tiniest bit of soil with its enormous shovel. Your pick-up truck trembles...
And you laugh, as the truck creaks and moans while the load slowly pours in:
And then it’s done, and your tires look a bit flat as the truck bed sags:
There it is, truck full of soil:
And you drive off. Total time was approximately 10 minutes.
Then you have a 1/2 hour drive to think about how you’re going to get it out of the pick-up....
How Much Did It Cost?
For 1 cubic yard (a whole pick-up full), it was $35 including tax. Had we bought it at a nursery, the bags would have been around $10 per cubic foot. Since one cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, in the store that would cost $270.
So... $270 minus $35 equals $235 saved! The gas to get there was probably $10-15, so maybe we saved more like $220. Not bad!
Don’t need a whole truck load?
They sell it in 1/2 yards as well. Or you could go in on it with a neighbor or another local gardener!
Why Potting Soil?
Note that Cedar Grove has a variety of choices, and the pricing for compost, soil booster, veggie soil mix, etc. are all cheaper than potting soil.
We bought potting soil because half of the Family Allotment is fairly small, so half our garden will consist of potted container plants. Since several of our tomatoes and peppers will be in containers, I wanted to take care of the pots first. Those seedlings need to get in asap! We’ll go back to get soil booster (compost + manure) later in the week to amend the garden.
Why Buy Your Local Waste Management Compost?
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Gave away the first answer in the question: it’s local. It doesn’t travel very far, so very little carbon is emitted to get it to you. -
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It eliminates packaging. In the store, this would all be bundled in plastic bags.
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It’s organic. They make the compost the same way you would in a backyard composter, only at a much larger scale (more on that later).
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You’re supporting the yard waste system - if we buy it, there is a need for it and thus they’ll continue receiving yard waste! According to the Cedar Grove website, the company recycles almost 200,000 tons of yard waste per year. Seattle recycles 44% of its trash (compared to 30% in the country), with a goal of 72% by 2025. (Seattle residents note: apparently recycling of food scraps will become mandatory in Seattle in 2009... though I haven’t verified this.) We have to support these systems, and help make them work!
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You’re supporting future benefits. Cedar Grove is planning to harness the methane gas given off in the composting process. When we drove to the facility, the Proposal for Land Use Action was already up - so it looks like they’re getting ready. Just one more way to close the loop!
How Do They Make Compost?
Here is a picture of the giant compost heaps, where the compost remains for the first 28 days:
Each one of these is a 10 foot high by 32 foot long, 450 ton heap o’ compost. It is covered with Gore-tex cloth to keep in the moisture, and periodically injected with additional inoculants (mulch with beneficial microbes). Long probes monitor oxygen and temperature rates, and fans add additional oxygen to the piles when the oxygen levels go below 8%.
After 28 days, the pile is moved to smaller second-phase covered piles. After two weeks it’s moved to uncovered piles for two more weeks. Then it gets added to a mountain of other compost, where it is strained to eliminate any larger chunks.
(The above information is taken from this article, and a personal onsite interview.)
What Compost Are You Using?
If you purchase compost, what do you look for in a compost? Or do you create your own?
