A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Is it any good?

My town's compost site takes all our leaves and stuff, lets them break down and what not, and then we can go get as much free compost as we want. Last year, I used some for some tomatoes and had spectacular results. I used it in my vegie garden this year, and have found lots of weed seeds, as well as small rocks or clumps. My neighbor said you shouldn't use it because you don't know what's in it-anything anybody may have thrown out with their leaves. Did I do a no-no for my vegies? Do you think it's OK for flowers? I hope I didn't just contaminate my whole garden! Help!

Rozy,
You've hit a sore spot for me..and composting..
and that stuff, from town's compost piles!!!!!!
:p is AWESOME and a wonderful use of stuff like leaves and compostable materials..
And I'm only speaking of here in my town, and I watch what goes on there and can not speak for all the other places...

But, we have people that are allowed to go down and dump any yard waste from their yard into any pile they see fit that they want to pile it on, then the other guys move it, and fresh stuff is moved into old stuff and it isn't done when you want some...

ALSO, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE OTHER PERSON DID TO THE STUFF, MAINLY PESTICIDES OR HERBICIDES, ETC...

I personally would never use it on my veggie garden.. you don't know when they've used what~ when... it scares me...

I am not sure if it disapates, I guess someone like the plant Doc or someone who applies the stuff would know how long it stays viable.....

And sometimes people use those "pre~emergants" stuff on the lawns, etc... and it's to prevent weed seeds from germinating and that stuff isn't supposed to be eaten...

I might think it would okay to use on the flower beds.. as long as you don't eat the flowers...

And as for the weeds, yep, if someone emptied their grass bags from mowing the lawn, you very well could have gotten weed seeds from there...

Weezie

Oh my Gosh!!! What do I do? I put about 2-3 inches across my entire garden, and worked it in. Am I doomed? This is awful!!! HELP!!! :p

I am not 100% sure..
Is there any way you can go down and talk
with your people that do the composting piles??

They may be able to shed some type of light on
somethings for you??

As for the pesticides, etc... not 100% on that either...
Let me PM The plant Doc.. he applies that stuff and maybe able to help with the disappation
of that stuff and how long afterwards..

Don't want to alarm you!!!

Weezie

We have a similar system at home. I only use it on my native gardens, wouldn't put it in the vege patch for the reasons Weeziie suggested. A tip to limit the weed seeds etc is to make sure they get your load from the guts of the pile not the edges, if it's still hot then so much the better.
Chances are the weedy load you got was from the edges and hadn't composted to a high enough temp to kill the seeds.

If you're seeing weed seeds germinate, then the pile wasn't hot enough to kill the seeds. If it wasn't hot enough to kill the seeds, then it wasn't hot enough to destroy any herbicides or pesticides.

If you've already mixed it in, there isn't a lot that you can do unless you want to remove the top three inches of soil and replace it. Not an appealing option. Just don't add any more of the stuff. On the bright side, it may not be a batch that had Chem Lawn grass clippings. Just like everyone has posted, you don't know what you're getting with municiple compost. It could be ok, or it might not be ok.

I used to take lawn clippings from my neighbors to hot compost. I turned the pile every day and monitored the temp every day to make sure it got above 150 degrees C, so I figured I would burn out most of the bad stuff. I couldn't make the stuff fast enough. Then one day, I dumped lawn clippings that had pears is a plastic bag. The pears were organic enough, but the person had also added their dogs poop to the pears. Ewwww!

I stopped using lawn clippings from neighbors after that. I still pilfer leaves in the fall, but I will not use grass clippings from anyone elses lawn but mine.

This reminded me of my moms garden one spring. She had piled compost from her communities composting system on it and had poison ivy pop up. It took years to get rid of it and many years of painful blistering for her. I watch everyone come back with truck loads of the stuff and shake my head

I hope it turns out ok for you.

I wouldn't use it in my garden, but it shouldn't be the end of the world. U.V. light, heat and biological processes will eventually break down any chemicals. If you really need soil amendments, stockpile some of this compost for use in 2 or 3 years, then use it for topdressing. It sounds like your city's composting techniques aren't thorough.