Hi Smilla, I also live in Saugerties and have gardened here for 35 years. The only place I know for free compost is the New Paltz landfill, off route 32 north of NP. They have a huge pile of composted leaves, older on one side that the other. You have to load it yourself and bring a pickup or containers like those white plastic buckets. I used to be able to get mushroom dirt and manure free but nowadays, the mushrooms are grown in Pennsylvania and the horse farms sell the manure. If you have space, you can compost your own leaves and grass clippings (my neighbors give me their clippings) or just use the grass clippings as mulch. If you learn of any other places, I'd love to hear about them.
Happy Gardening.

The Hurley town dump has a huge compost pile where everyone brings truckloads of plant material to pile on. Only thing is, public piles have poison ivy vines in them, so I wouldn't use it in a personal garden.

Nice to see someone else from Saugerties! I will check out the landfill off rte 32. If I hear of anything else I will post to the forum. Bt the way, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary was mentioned as a source a while ago, but they no longer have free compost.

Hello, some years later: We are moving to Lake Katrine in a month or so. New home, raw earth yard. I know I can grow grass on anything provided enough fertilizer and H2O but I would sure like to find free sources of compost and mulch to amend the sub soil. Coming from Rockland county, NY I guess I am spoiled since we had access to both. What is available in 2017?