I just went to Lowe's to see about getting some potting soil. The only thing there with ORGANIC on it was something from Miracle Gro. It had poultry and/or cattle manure in it, along with forest products, etc.
To me, it would be organic if the livestock was never fed antibiotics or growth hormones, but I'm betting that was not the case.
Are there any truly organic soil amendments out there that I might be able to find locally, easily?
You didn't tell us where "locally" is, but you look to be a sonic.net customer so I'm guessing the Santa Rosa area. If no one comes up with something satisfactory then have a look at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Well, the most local is your own property. So there's the whole green manure thing (grow a cover crop, usually a nitrogen fixer, and dig it into the soil (or compost it, if you want to go the no-till or less-till route)).
Then there's any number of waste items (when I worked in a peanut butter factory, which was also a farm, we had peanut skins, although that's sort of a bad example because we fed those to the cows).
Animal manures are another route. Maybe see who is selling animal products at the local farmer's market and ask them? That's more likely to meet your standards for "truly organic" (which, I think, exceed the legal definition).
Straw (which you can compost) is available a lot of places. There's bagged tree bark (which takes a long time to decompose). etc.
I'm not really saying these particular ideas are especially good. But my point is that there are lot of ways to introduce organic matter, and nutrients, into the soil. It is just a matter of figuring out what is available around you (another reason to go local is that some of these aren't very rich in nitrogen and other nutrients, so you need a lot of them).
Thanks for the info. I was able to find some organic compost at OSH yesterday. It spelled out that it conforms to organic standards.
Now I have to mix up some potting soil. Got a bit of peat moss, and some alfalfa meal. I'll find some other amendments when I can. I think I live in the only non-organic portion of the normally organic-friendly Bay Area. Can't even find any organic seeds anywhere. I'll have to drive to Berkeley. I live in Fremont, CA, by the way, not Santa Rosa.
That's a problem though. My property is a concrete slab about 10x16.
I'll check into that. A friend of mine has some chickens, but I'll have to see what she feeds them.
I'll be putting in a compost bin, but I needed something to get going for some stuff I'm going to be potting soon. This will be container gardening.
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