[gremlin]

Our council sell their compost for £3.50 a bag, so doubt we'd get any free

Likewise. And its only a tiny 20 l bag. 

[Yorkie]

Ours sells it in bags, but once a month during Spring - Autumn you can go and collect as much as you like from the composting site outside York.  Bring your own bags and spades though!

[Growster...]

Our lot charge something like £3.50 a bag, and you have to collect it too!

That's why you read comments by 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'!

(And there will certainly be all sorts of nasties in it like knotweed, marestail, bricks, old car parts, blighted rubbish as well - I bet they don't test it...:0)

[Growster...]

Give the council a ring - they might supply compost from their brown/green bins composting. We get huge loads of it free.

Sorry Noshed, I missed replying - lucky you, and all green to your elbow...;0)

[stompy]

(And there will certainly be all sorts of nasties in it like knotweed, marestail, bricks, old car parts, blighted rubbish as well - I bet they don't test it...:0)

I don't think that'll be true!

They compost the stuff at hight temps so all the nasties, seeds, roots (etc) will be killed.
They can compost it far better than we could, and it goes through a ridling system.
Our council don't sell it or give it away, (i've asked on many accations) they use it on the city centre gardens and city flowerbeds and there is never a weed amongst their displays, and very nice they are too.

[moose]

My neighbour built raised beds 6 inches deep and 4ftx4ft, filled with council  compost and planted onion sets. They all got white rot. Sets were donated by a fellow gardener from his surplus and he did not have white rot.

[stompy]

Probably already in his ground beforehand!

[moose]

It was on ground that had been lawn for 15 years at least. He put cardboard down and covered that with the compost so I'm still inclined to suspect that's what it was from. It is also not unusual to find all sorts of bit of plastic, glass and metal in the council stuff.

[Peas let my pumpkins grow]

Maybe it differs from council to council, some may be more bothered about what goes in than others, equally some may test and others may not think of it as a priority??

I know our council have upset a few of our neighbours- they fine u if u put the wrong things in the wrong bins and have even threatened to fine for putting  bins out the night before collection.... 

I've emailed them now about compost, just wilting to hear back ... Fingers crossed 

[moose]

Councils do their best but I doubt if they have the manpower to check everything that is put out. Unfortunately not everyone is careful to put the correct items in the correct bins. Some make mistakes  but some people don't seem to care. I saw a green waste bin with beer cans in it on Monday.

[Agatha]

I think it does vary from area to area - I won't touch our local council compost after two people found huge chunks of glass in theirs and I know three other people who used it and found japanese knotweed appearing in their gardens where none had been before...but I know people in other areas have had great success with council compost, so I'd suggest asking the local gardeners what they think.

[allot2learn]

Talking about the difference in the way in which green waste is handled, a few months ago I put our bins out containing our carefully separated waste. The green one for garden waste, and a smaller green one for the waste food, which includes cooked food.
Just before the bin wagon came round, one of the operatives was working in advance and I spotted him emptying the waste food bin into the garden waste. When I asked him why he had combined our carefully separated waste he simply said,"Well it all goes in the same bin waggon".

I rang the council with my concerns to be told that they don't have the facilities to handle cooked food, (although they require it to be separated from the landfill waste,) and so it goes to "a recycling company". No further details were available.

It just makes me wonder just what is in some of the bags of compost that we spend not an inconsiderable amount of money on to try to grow healthy vegetables.

[crh75]

We'll be getting vegetarian compost next! 

[mumofstig]

You already can - even a Vegan one
http://magento.wheatgrass-uk.com/magento/index.php/vegancompost.html

But the compost in my bin is 'vegetarian' - in that it doesn't contain anything of animal origin. It's simply vegetable waste from plot or kitchen 

[Growster...]

You already can - even a Vegan one
http://magento.wheatgrass-uk.com/magento/index.php/vegancompost.html

But the compost in my bin is 'vegetarian' - in that it doesn't contain anything of animal origin. It's simply vegetable waste from plot or kitchen 

That's hellish expensive, Mum!

I think I prefer your idea!