Adding Bagged Garden Soil to Compost Bin?

Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:18 pm

Hi all! I'm new here so I haven't learned my way around quite yet. This may have already been discussed. I bought some cheap garden soil that I'm not happy with - it's very woody and, well, cheap. Can I throw the rest of the bag (about 1.5 cu ft) into my compost tumbler and let it mix in with the good stuff. Will it break down and become something more useable?

Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:07 pm

The wood chips and other undecomposed organic matter will break down in the compost. However, soil is mostly mineral matter, and this will not really 'break down' at all in the compost pile. What you will get out of the process is compost with some soil in it. And that's OK. Normally I would put soil on or into the ground somewhere though. It doesn't really add anything to the composting process, that's for sure.

Since you are using a tumbler, it is probably not a hot compost pile, so the risk of cooling it off with the soil (which produces no heat) is not such a problem. It may make your tumbler quite heavy so watch out for that. You could add it a bit at a time and spread it out over several tumbler batches.

If it were me I would probably spread it around on the surface of the garden like a mulch. Eventually those wood chips will break down on their own. But it won't hurt your compost.

Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:22 pm

Thanks for the reply. I don't know why I hadn't thought of using it as a mulch on my beds. I think I'll go ahead and do that.

Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:42 pm

Glad to be of service!