Hi Guys,

anyone know if the local council’s sell garden compost?

I ve been told they do, at least one bit north of Benidorm which is bit too far for me to go, but dont know if, where or how to get some anywhere else more locally. I remember reading something on the internet before moving out here that local councils buy garden waste for a couple of euros a ton and sell back compost cheaply but have nt been able to find the site since.

I live near Denia and driving into town there are several huge heaps of compost about 50ft high visible from the main road at what appears to be some sort of a recycling plant.

My ” garden ” is one huge rock so planting anything means building retaining walls/tubs and filling with compost which can get expensive if bought from garden centres. I m sure I cant be the only one needing some, so anyone with any info about cheap compost lets have it 😊

There must be some horse-riding centres near you - always a good place to ask for manure!

There are now a number of local councils that now produce inexpensive compost for garden, allotment and golf course use notably Sevilla, Migas Pueblo, Benissa and Denia. They compost gardeners rubbish and seaweed blown onto beaches.
AT 3 TO 4 EUROS A 1OO KILOS IT’S A GREAT START WHEN LAYING OUT THE GAREN . bUT IOT DOES NEED MANURE MIXED INTO IT. We use it extensively including in our experiments on growing vegetables in less than one square metre….see sections and fotos in Growing healthy vegetables in spain.

Thanks for that info Greenfingers, I had been told that was the case. How does one go about getting it? Just drive up with a sack and shovel and help yourself? Can you get it delivered? Any limit on how much you can have? Got a couple of new villas next to us being just finished off for some Brits who are keen gardeners and they will need lots when they move in next month so could be more convenient if we could get a load delivered. Did you collect yours yourselves and what was the procedure at your centre?

As you suggest you can just turn up with sacks and a shovel….there is normally one there if you forget. You weigh in and and out on a weigh bridge and pay in the office. There are various mixes of compost earth and composted sea weed available at slighly different prices ...the girl has a chart to explain to you.
If you take a lorry or trailer they will fill ijn minutes with a dumper truck. They can arrange for lorry hire with a couple of days notice.
Suggest you make a visit to organise this. There is no limit to how much you can buy. Their major customers are golf course and landscaping contractors and eco vegetable growers.
On http://www.gardeninginspain.com there is an article explaining how we now prepare soils. Let us know hopw you get on.

Making good compost is not as easy as in northern europe .We therefor wrote a long chaptere in our book GROWING HEALTHY VEGETABLES and GROWING HEALTHY FRUIT IN SPAIN comparing the effectiveness of eleven common ways od producing compost as well as giving detailed guidelines for producing rich compost annually.
One can never have enough in Spain!!

Thanks will try and get a copy of your book next time I m in Denia. Not been to the compost depot yet, too busy, well too idle really! Gone native allready, manyana, manyana!