Tips for saving cash on organic compost and manure

If you pre­fer to pur­chase bags of soil and manure: here’s a tip for sav­ing mon­ey. Walk past the bright­ly col­ored bags of brand names in the front of the store or gar­den cen­ter and head to the back rows.

The brand names will tout “organ­ic soil”, “organ­ic gar­den soil” and such. But, the bags in the back will be rich and organ­ic as well. And a whole lot cheaper.

The price dif­fer­ence can be stag­ger­ing. At the gar­den cen­ter for my local home improve­ment store, the brands in the front of the store sold for $8.99 to $16.99 per forty pound bag. Com­pare that to the ones above that sold for $1.97 to $2.97. Big difference!

I used the same stuff last year, and my plants loved it. They were strong and healthy. This year, I added more. And as my gar­den guru said: “Man! You’ve got some seri­ous­ly rich soil here.”

And then he went to the store to buy some for his garden.