Whole Foods manure compost

We were at Whole Foods today (annual feast at the hot and cold "make your own box"). I wish I had taken a photo of the cow ($3) and cow/horse ($5) manure compost they had outside. Something like "Double Duty or Doobie" for the cow/horse/straw blend. Any one try it? It may be a regional product, but it sounded nice as there were no wood chips involved. We had the good car so there was no temptation to grab a bag.

A person as handy as you should always carry a tarp or some spare garbage bags!

I've got a whole slew of junk I carry around "just in case."

I'm driving a hatchback now, and have some carpet I cut to fit the back so that the worst likely to happen is I stain some disposable carpet.

Good idea about a piece of carpet.

Holy Poop!  Whole Foods doesn't sell anything for that price here.  There is one type of organic compost outside, and it is $8 or $9 for a 1 CF bag.  As far as I can tell, they may have sold 5 to 10 bags all year.

Let me just offer this advice: if you have a Sprout's, Earthfare, or Sunflower in your town, patronize those stores in lieu of Whole Paycheck.  Trader Joe's is not perfect, but their organic is preferable to 365.  Regular chains like Kroger, HEB, Stop and Shop, Safeway, and even Wally World offer an expanding amount of organic and supplemental foods. 

If you have a viable local health grocer, give them your business even if it costs a little more.  If you have access to an organic co-op or organic CSA, choose them instead.

Better yet, grow something in your SFG in large amounts and then sell it at local markets so that others can benefit from healthy organic.  Mel wrote in the 1980's about making money from your SFG, "Cash From Square Foot Gardening".  This predates the raised bed version, but he explained in detail how to make a tidy profit.  It can still be found.  It is easy enough to grow herbs in large enough quantities to resell and make money while allowing others to enjoy truly healthy herbs at much less cost than Whole Paycheck.

As far as compost goes, as well as many other garden needs, we love Boogie Brew and Kelp 4 Less.  We order from both.

http://www.boogiebrew.net/gyg/
https://www.kelp4less.com/

We buy organic seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Baker Creek, and in bulk from a local co-op.  If you order from SESE, you might actually get a seed or two from our garden, since we participate in the exchange.

http://www.southernexposure.com/
http://www.rareseeds.com/

Yes, a piece of old carpet, several 5-gallon pails with lids, and a shovel are handy to carry around.

I travel around in my hatchback with the two rear seats folded down. The carpet I use fits that lay-out, but has to be rolled up a bit if I raise the two rear seats.

Keeping the rear seats down tends to make anything I put in the back roll around and possibly even make a surprise fall out of the side doors or the hatchback door when I open them up to unload my stuff later. I've shattered glass jars that way.

I solved that problem with two plastic storage containers, the size made to vertically hold standard size file folders. Put end to end, they fill the back of the hatchback and are pretty secure all by themselves, but I secure them with bungee cords or a cinch strap whenever I need to put something particularly heavy or delicate in them so they don't slide around. I keep them back toward the hatchback door itself so that they are easy to get to and so that when I take a dog with me, it can hang around the front with the people and stick its nose in my eye while I'm trying to drive.

I can put covers on them when I want my stuff to be private, or leave them off when I buy something tall like a plant that will need to stick out the top. If I need to put something in the back that's really big, I can empty one container into another and then stack them, and rest them on top of their lids in a smaller section of the back, or even bring them up front to the passenger seat. It's a handy way to manage a big empty space.

Picturing your dog licking you in the eye while you are driving! Bless his heart. We have a pickup for manure and compost hauling. I just wondered if anyone had tried this compost.