British Columbia: Where to buy decent soil for organic vegetable gardening in 2016

Hi, we're in the midst of starting an organic garden for growing our own vegetables. I've read conflicting things about the ingredients in the thread by a similar name that was written in 2009. Is there anything newly reported in 2015-2016.

Here's the essential conflictL

e.g. Knowledgable sources tell me that the compost sold in bulk at the Vancouver Landfill is as good as it gets. It looks and works great in my beds. Here is a link about it (check out the native plant garden while you're there)...

and...

Not to naysay what might be a good product when it's composted, but one should be aware of what goes into the compost at the Vancouver landfill: having once worked as a landscaper in Vancouver, trucks would line up at the end of the day and offload grass clippings, etc. at the transfer site. Not uncommon to find condoms, syringes, and other foul and non-organic stuff in the piles. You're essentially getting the concentrated boulevard/parking lot/commercial landscape scrapings of a major city. Not to suggest these things were abundant, and perhaps there's sifting/sorting stages along the way, with compost heat taking care of any residuals, but having seen the source, no way I'd put it near food crops.

I realize you are in Ontario but Landfill is Landfill or is it?

Thanks, a Newbie Gardener but working with seasoned gardeners as well on a Community Garden

 

Personally, I would never use city compost in my edible garden. What is wrong with the soil on Bowen Island, why you can't grow your crops directly in it?

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks for responding. Our soil is very rocky. Most of Bowen is mountainous. Our site needs soil enrichment.

 

Have a look at page 16 of http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2014-vancouver-landfill-annual-report.pdf to get an idea of the compost quality. Meets or exceeds BC standards for a number of potentially worrying items; the question then becomes how comfortable you are with the BC standards.

 

Thank you DM for referring to this. My instinct as a brand new gardener and health concerned person is not to be comfortable with such standards as in the landfill report. This is instinct, not knowledge. It seems like nothing remains uncontaminated by something. What soil do gardeners of so called "organic" vegetable gardens use? What would you put in your own compost? We still need soil to begin with and are just making beds for winter planting. The trouble with the word "organic" is that it is used as easily for any organic matter as well as what we buy as "organic" from grocery stores.

 

The approach you will take depends on what you really want to achieve; quick fixes or a long term sustainable organic garden. If the latter, you will start (and continue) by soil building, if the former you will buy the “soil”.

I don't know what soil so called “organic” gardeners use, but I know what soil real organic gardeners use, and it is their own native soil, regardless how poor and infertile at the beginning, that they never stop trying to improve.

Here is a short, introductory article on what you should know about your soil Kootenay Gardening - General Gardening Information

 

Soorya, Of course I don't know anything about your soil, you didn't tell much about it, but looking at the images of Bowen Island on the Net I see quite lush vegetation. It tells me it should be possible to grow vegetables there, too.

That the soil is rocky is not a problem in itself, as long as it really is a rocky soil and not a pure gravel or the surface of the rock itself. Rocks in the soil improve drainage, which is a good thing.

If I were you, I would start with adding as much as you reasonably can of true organic material to the soil (leaves, needles, uncontaminated with herbi- or pesti-cides grass clippings, organic straw, wood chips, compost, some wood ashes if you have them, crushed egg shells, etc), do deep digging to mix it well with the soil, wait a few weeks, and sow cover crops or green manures first to suppress possible weeds, improve the soil further, and to see how things will grow in it.
It, of course, will delay your vegetable gardening, but it will make it much more rewarding in the future and you will learn a lot.

I started my gardening not in the most optimal conditions, too, in the area known before as "that dry desert", and believe me, it may be still dry, but it is quite far from being a desert now.

How you will proceed is up to you, but take into account that any contamination in the soil that is water-soluble will be absorbed by your plants tissue.

 

Hi, I would like to follow this thread.

I live in South Vancouver and have a small patch in front of my house that gets just enough sunlight to grow vegetables. I'm also interested and concerned about soil quality and where to get some...within the next month, in order to start a winter garden. Since we are renting, I'm not sure if setting up a compost bin is acceptable or reasonable, as we might only be here 1-2 years. I can grow a mix of vegetables and edibles flowers and on the west side of the yard, shaded by the house next door, I plan to plant an ornamental shade garden with some perennials and maybe a shrub or two.

Is there any place in Greater Vancouver to purchase a few yards (6-10) of quality compost that is safe for a food garden? I'm with the above writer whom is reluctant to buy from the city landfill.

 

what part of Bowen? there are forested spots and also the exposed steep rock-outcrop areas

one of the best composts - and it works down pretty quickly - are all the "big leaf maple" leaves - of which there are tons on Bowen Island. Alder leaves, too. Mind you, I am not advocating that you go and dig up the local forest. However, likely you have some of those trees on your own property and are raking them up anyway - so put them in to a "hardware cloth" cage bin located where you want your evolving garden to happen

does anyone have a pet bunny rabbit - collect their manure.
Sheep manure

be nice to earthworms.

i agree with SunDrop - work your own soil slowly and build it up

as far as what ends up in the diverted green waste, here is info from Sechelt, which is near Bowen as the seagulls fly - Salish Soils: Growing Innovation and Supporting the Vision of a Sustainable Coast

 

So, how are you doing with your garden project sunnday?

 

Hi Sundrop,
Haven't gotten very far at all. I found a place that sells "soil amender" by the yard and delivers, for a decent price, but I have no idea what is in the soil. It might be that I don't grow veggies and opt for ornamental shrubs and perennials instead. As I said before, since we are renting and I think we will only be here for 1-2 years, I don't want to set up a composter. I feel like I don't have enough time to build up my own soil.

 

I agree, one or two years is not a long time. But we never know, what if you stayed there longer?
Being uncertain I would not put much effort into it, but I would start doing something.

How about preparing just a small bed at first, but doing it right? First doing two spades deep digging to replace the top layer of the soil with a bottom layer and vice versa, to get grass and whatever grows there now down and upside down, so it will not grow back but nicely decompose down there, and to bring the mineral soil up. Spreading whatever organic you can get on top of the area next, may be adding some organic fertilizer too, digging everything in, one spade deep only this time, and sowing a cover crop: legume for nitrogen, buckwheat for phosphorus fixing, or annual rye simply for a biomass? Or maybe a mix of the two or even all three together?

With your mild climate, at spring you should have a fertile, teeming with soil organisms, not contaminated with anything bed for planting your veggies. Perennials or ornamental shrubs will be happy to grow there, too.
See Kootenays Gardening - Soil Organisms and definitely read the two linked to articles there.