First of all...welcome to GW and the TN Forum. We're happy that you found us and hope that you will jump in with both feet. Never balk at posting any message or question on here and make sure that you go hit the "Roll Call" thread and introduce yourself to everyone!

Lavonne and I make our own compost out of grass clippings, leaves, horse manure, shredded paper and our fruit & veggie waste. I water it, turn it and pour ammonia in it too. Our 4' sq bin (64 cf) produces about 10 wheelbarrow loads a year of the blackest, richest and most nightcrawler-laden compost you've ever seen. I also use some of the box store manure on our beds to mix in with the compost because of the abundance of sand that is in it.

Lasagna gardening is another way to boost the soil but that takes a little more time to breakdown.

We should have quite a bit of horse poo show up at The Middle Tennessee Plant Swap so make the trip, it'll be well worth it! Check out our website at http://www.midtnplantswap.com/.

I forgot to mention that we're poor and cheap so I'm not wasting money on buying someone elses overpriced compost when I can make stuff that is just as good for free. That being said, the folks in Franklin at The Compost Farm have an excellent product in Royal Sun and they'll deliver a truckload to your house. They also use soybean meal in their compost which is nice and they sell worm castings as well as compost tea. So if you have the cash and don't have the time either then they are a nice alternative.

Thanks bigorangevol for your info on composting. I have heard that it takes up to a year before homemade compost is ready to use. But your recipe for composting sounds like something worth trying. Do you have a bin that you use for your compost or do you just lay it on the ground and turn it? Also do you have any suggestions on what to do to get rid of grubworms? I don't like using chemicals because we have grandchildren and a puppy. Thanks!

I just used five pallets/skids that were being thrown away and bolted them together. It may take a year to get the good stuff but you can push the process along with Compost Tea. All I need is really one nice full bin per year anyway so after the first year you will always have plenty.

Milky Spore gets rid of the grubs and isn't harmful to anything that I know of.