In most parts of the country, enough organic materials accumulate
around an average home and yard to make all the compost a backyard
garden needs. You probably have weeds, leaves, perhaps your own
human hair (my wife is the family barber), dust from the vacuum
cleaner, kitchen garbage and grass clippings. But, there may not be
enough to simultaneously build the lushest lawn, the healthiest
ornamentals _and _grow the vegetables. If you want to make more
compost than your own land allows, it is not difficult to find very
large quantities of organic materials that are free or cost very
little.

The most obvious material to bring in for composting is animal
manure. Chicken and egg raisers and boarding stables often give
manure away or sell it for a nominal fee. For a few dollars most
small scale animal growers will cheerfully use their scoop loader to
fill your pickup truck till the springs sag.

As useful as animal manure can be in a compost pile, there are other
types of low C/N materials too. Enormous quantities of loose alfalfa
accumulate around hay bale stacks at feed and grain stores. To the
proprietor this dusty chaff is a nuisance gladly given to anyone
that will neatly sweep it up and truck it away. To the home
gardener, alfalfa in any form is rich as gold.

Some years, rainy Oregon weather is still unsettled at haying season
and farmers are stuck with spoiled hay. I'm sure this happens most
places that grass hay is grown on natural rainfall. Though a shrewd
farmer may try to sell moldy hay at a steep discount by representing
it to still have feed value, actually these ruined bales must be