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Virginia Gardening

Richmond- Where can i get free compost/horse manure?

purilisaVA-zone7B

15 years ago

Hello,

Please let me know, where I can get free compost/horse manure?

I have been able to acquire excellent mulch(free) part of it has been cooking all winter. Henrico service areas have huge quantities of mulch(ground leaves and wood bark. I have had to make several trip accompanied with muscles ache to get these but its worth it. So if anyone's looking for this mulch you know where to find it.

Also, if you know of a place where I can get free wood pallet, wood for raised beds(that someone wants to get rid of) please let me know, i would appreciate it very much.

A new Gardener,

Lisa

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Comments (5)

gardener_sandy
15 years ago
Check the yellow pages phone book under horses and try calling breeders or trainers. Many places are glad for you to take it off their hands if you will pick it up. Others may even deliver for a price.

For pallets, try calling some hardware stores or plumbing supply businesses. Some have them free for the taking.

Sandy
louisagardener
15 years ago
Also try craigslist.org - I see postings under the "free" tab quite often for people looking to get ride of scrap wood.

Also, I don't know if there is a livestock market near you, but you might check them out for the manure. The livestock market in Orange will load your pickup truck or trailer with all the poop it can hold for only $10. I know it's not free, but it's quite cheap.

Good luck with the gardening!

~ Christine :)
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Oh wow this thread has come back to the top! In the past few months I have pretty much stopped actively hot composting the manure stream, since it was a lot of work and proved difficult to give away for free at a fast enough rate. At present I am spreading it at home and just building my own soil that way. But for anyone in the north Scottsdale area who wants just old manure, I have plenty of 9-10 month old material that I haven't bothered to spread yet. Come with a shovel and bags (or you can use my old feed bags) and take as much as you'd like. Email for directions and to set up a time. FYI a lot of horse owners have to pay to have their manure hauled away in a dumpster and would gladly give it to you (fresh) if you approached them.
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I sent an email directly to the email you listed above. Haven't heard anything so I wonder if I got it wrong. I am interested in getting some of this from you this weekend if possible. I live in Plantation. Thanks in advance for your reply. Regards, Justine
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Go to this link, click on your state and then county. Call your CES agent and ask who and where chickens are being raised in your area. Contact the "chicken house" owners about the manure. Here is a link that might be useful: CES Agents
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Greetings: I collect free horse manure from a stable and have used it in my vegetable garden for years. Where I go, the stable piles it into 4 piles (fresh, 1 year old, 2year old and 3 year old). I always take from the oldest pile. I find the exterior of the pile will be full of weeds growing (and dropping their seeds). Usually I skim off the top layer and dig away deeper into the pile. I have not had issues with herbicide in the manure that I am aware of. We know a lot of stables around here as my daughter is an active horse rider and jumper. I doubt any stable would buy feed laced contaminated with herbicide. Horses and vet bills are not cheap so high quality hay from very specific local sources is purchased. I have no fear of herbicides in the horse manure I get from stables I know. My big gripe is that years ago, straw was used for bedding. The straw broke down with the manure relatively fast. Now all the stables went to wood chips as cheaper than straw for bedding. The chips take at least 3 years and sometimes longer to break down. I find the horse manure works wonders for loosening up my very heavy clay soil. I can't say I have seen much difference in the crops as far as nitrogen is concerned. Some years I only get enough manure to spread over 1/2 the garden and I never noticed one side growing greener crops than the other.
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purilisaVA-zone7B
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you Sandy and Christine, I appreciate any and all tips:) If you come across anything that says "free" that could help a garden, please please let me know.

A Thrify gardener

Lisa:)
hanovertomato
15 years ago
Lisa-

About the wood for raised beds, I'm in the planning stages on my new beds too. A guy on craigslist is selling railroad ties for $8 each. (avg dimensions 9 foot long, 9 inches wide, 7 inches tall) I'm a little iffy on using them for edible plants, since they were treated with creasote, but if he's got some older/weathered ones (so most of the chemicals would have leached out a long time ago), I think that's my plan!

Hanover County dumps also do the free mulch thing.

Anybody know where to get inexpensive wire for putting under my raised beds to keep the moles out?
bobbic
15 years ago
The trouble with railroad ties is that they're treated with chemicals you don't want leaching into your plants.

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