Area residents will have a chance to purchase large amounts of compost for their lawns and gardens this week.
The city will host its annual compost sale from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the city’s compost and woodchip facility, 1420 E. 11th Street.
The city will sell the compost for $10 per pickup truck load. Free compost will be available for people who load it themselves.
Compost is an organic material made from leaves and grass clippings that have broken down over time. The material is often used by gardeners to enrich their soils.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.
Blessed4x (Rich Colson) says…
Too easy. To comment on this headline would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
introversion (anonymous) says…
In Olathe, they can get compost for free whenever they want. I never thought Lawrence would take a lesson like that from Olathe.
Danimal (anonymous) says…
Lawrence could learn a lot of things from Olathe, like proper street and infrastructure maintenance.
Keith (anonymous) says…
"introversion (Anonymous) says…
In Olathe, they can get compost for free whenever they want."
You can get it free here too, you just have to bring your own containers and load it yourself. They charge if you have them dump a truckload into your pickup. Can't help you with the anytime aspect though.
GardenMomma (anonymous) says…
Anyone know why the city's compost smells like a backed up bathroom? My neighbor gets city compost and for days, her yard stinks like an outhouse.
I compost in my yard and compost kitchen scraps as well as yard waste and it doesn't smell like the city's. Everything I've ever read about composting says it shouldn't smell bad.
Keith (anonymous) says…
GardenMomma, are you sure your neighbor is getting compost and not the biosludge the sewage plant produces? I may be wrong, but you used to be able to get the cleaned up end product of all our waste from the city.
lawrenceguy40 (anonymous) says…
At least you have the choice to buy or not to buy. Most of the manure that comes out of city hall we have no choice about taking.....
GardenMomma (anonymous) says…
Oh, maybe that's what she's getting. Whatever it is, it sure does smell awful. I thought it was compost, but it may be the "mulch" that she's getting.
ksjayhawk74 (anonymous) says…
What? No picture?
mr_right_wing (anonymous) says…
Thanks Libs! A source of 'compost'; and here I thought you guys were good for nothing! From obama down, I thank you all for the endless supply!
notajayhawk (anonymous) says…
Blessed4x (Anonymous) says…
"Too easy. To comment on this headline would be like shooting fish in a barrel."
Luckily, I'm not opposed to an occasional wounded fish:
If the political idiology expressed in these message boards by the fine liberal Larryvillers is any indication, Lawrence residents have been buying manure for a very long time.
overthemoon (anonymous) says…
be wary of this stuff. stupid people put contaminated (i.e. chemical laden) in their yard waste pickup bags/piles and you can end up killing all of your plants.
as for those who try to politicize even garden compost, let's try to get to a higher level of debate, ok?
WereAllMonkeys (anonymous) says…
Overthemoon, I have to agree, a few years ago our family got some for our Mom, and it destroyed her garden with a weed, I think it is called arrowroot. It pervasive fast growing strangler weed that killed off almost all of her flowers.
connected (anonymous) says…
Compost I got out there smells strongly like petroleum products even 2 years later now. Also has a lot of undesirable things in it such as pieces of glass & plastic, aluminum foil, miscellaneous wrappers, etc.
Supposed to be safe to grow vegetables in but I have serious doubts. Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes. It's a shame.
smitty (anonymous) says…
Keith and others, as far as 24/7 free compost...all you need do is go to the bio solid area any time night or day. There is a large supply kept outside of the locked gates for anyone to take.
bondmen (anonymous) says…
I ordered mine and will have it delivered this year to the football and basketball programs as a reminder and a lesson about the bottom line when boys act out the words with which they've filled their minds.
lzell01 (Laura Zell) says…
FYI. I called the City of Lawrence Waste Reduction & Recycling and had a very nice conversation with a lady named, Cassandra.
I run a local based website: Gardenmodo.com and she gave me permission to post the information from our conversation. I hope you find this helpful.
I've always wondered...just how safe is municipal compost, really?
Today I called up the Waste Reduction & Recycling department for the city of Lawrence (#832-3030 & www.lawrencerecycles.org), and spoke with a very nice and informative lady, Cassandra.
She assured me that they have taken every effort to ensure the compost they offer to us is safe and in her opinion as good as if not better than commercial organic compost.
She says that they are unable to label the city compost as "organic" because they cannot verify everything that goes into it, but she says that through their lab testing it shows NO traces of pesticides or herbicides.
They especially look out for the chemical Clopyralid. A few years ago this chemical got into the municipal compost and caused major problems with gardens every where. It turns out that this herbicide has a half life of more than a year, so it would still be present after the three month composting process.
She says that this chemical has been banned for years, but since people might still have some sitting on a shelf in the garage they continue to test for it in every batch.
This Springs sale will include compost from July, August and September of 2009. She says most herbicides have a half life of 90-110 days. They are designed to me inactive after the typical three month municipal composting process.
Weed seeds also should not be an issue since she verified that the municipal composting batches reach temperatures of at least 170 degrees.
I have always read that it is best to get compost from your own yard, and that is exactly what our municipal compost is! It's all local grass clippings & leaves from plants grown right in the area, which is therefore suppose to be the best for the soil.
So I don't know about you, but I'm calling friends with trucks to get my hands on as much as possible, and preparing for a beautiful season!