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How to Find Free Compost Ingredients  
HOW TO 

Tags: Compost, Composter, Free Compost, Compost Ingredients, Soil

Why buy expensive treatments or toxic fertilizers to ensure rich soil and a fertile garden when you can get the same benefits from compost. Before you go to the local nursery or garden supply store and pay a premium for composting ingredients, consider make compost on your own at home. In fact, you don’t even have to make great compost—you can find the ingredients for free with a couple of phone calls and a little research. This article serves more as a “how to�? on finding free composting materials than a “how to�? on making compost. The steps below will list possible ways to connect with free compost. By going through the list you are certain to find something that will amend your soil and help your plants flourish!

	Ask your local coffee shop if they throw out used coffee grinds. Coffee grinds are an excellent amendment to soil.
	Inquire with local lumberyards and home improvement stores for free sawdust. Be sure to use sawdust only from untreated wood.
	Collect newspapers. Separate the newspaper from the glossy inserts, and shred the paper to make it compost more quickly.
	Contact local dairies, feedlots, or cattle operations for composted cow manure. The ideal manure has been composting for at least 2 years.
	Call a local food processing plant to inquire if they have any left over organic material.
	Visit your local zoo and ask about retrieving compost from the exhibit animals.
	Place cardboard over a bed of worms to create worm castings and heavily nutritious composting materials.
	Visit Christmas tree lots for mulched trees; many cities and communities recycle Christmas trees, so mulch might be available from this seasonal source.
	Contact your city government. A few cities such as San Francisco are now offering free compost starter kits.
	Be neighborly. Your neighbors are bound to have a lot of potential compost. Talk to them about composting, and ask if they will save their scrap vegetables and the like for you or if you can collect their yard waste. Many municipalities now offer regular yard waste pickup; if your neighbors use this, you can simply ask them to let you collect the yard waste from their bins.
	Set sail for seaweed. Sea and lake vegetation is remarkably nutrient rich and makes a great addition to your compost. If you live near the ocean, you can probably collect plenty of seaweed. Hose it down thoroughly before adding it to your compost; this will remove the salt and prevent unpleasant odors.
	Wood Ash is also an excellent soil amendment. Some people have fire pits in their yards, or bring a 5 gallon bucket with you when you go camping, and add the cold wood ash to the mix. Just make sure you are only burning untreated wood or paper in your fire.

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Source: WikiHow – All text in this list shared under a Creative Commons License

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