vegan dirt

[foobar]

seriously, i'm searching for vegan dirt.
ok, here's the story. i'm kinda-sorta getting into a small amount of gardening, and as the soil around the house isnt too great, i'm looking for something to mix with it. i'm not talking about fertilizer, but actual soil. i looked at the nursery and home depot (hardware type store) and as you can expect i found lots of non-vegan things, potting soil with non-vegan things, plain non-vegan things, plain vegan things like sand and peat moss, but no 'dirt' i can be sure is vegan.

i did get a bag of earthgro topsoil and earthgro potting soil, the ingredients listed seemed vegan-ish, the main suspect ingredient was 'compost' which i suppose could be anything. i checked the website listed on the bag (http://www.scotts.com) but i could not find any additional information regarding its vegan-ness. so, does anyone happen to know if those two products are vegan? i'm in california, and i think one of the bags says things are slightly different for california.

another idea someone suggested is 'topsoil' from a landscaping or quarry type place. i'll try calling some of those, but i'm not sure what kind of response i'm going to get when i ask about the ingredients in their dirt.

so, to restate things, i'm looking to make some vegan potting soil type of stuff, and i've got most ingredients covered execpt the actual dirt.

[Scorpius]

How exactly can DIRT be non-vegan??? :confused:

[kristadb]

no fish or bone crap I guess. Perhaps no manure either.

[MsRuthieB]

Nah, manure is cool. It's a waste byproduct. Dogs eat it. :)

[meatless]

I found an all-vegetable compost dirt at Home Depot. But that was earlier in the gardening season, they may just have whatever's leftover now.

[foobar]

scorpius: plain dirt is vegan, which is what i'm looking for. i can find several kinds of slightly altered dirt in the form of potting soils and such, but these tend to be altered with non-vegan things such as manure and bone or blood meal.

meatless: do you remember what the all-vegetable compost was called? the compost at the nursery i checked apparently contains blood meal or something.

i realise that this search for 'vegan dirt' probably sets some kind of record for most ridiculous vegan item, but that doesn't make it easy to find. i can buy a dozen different brands of bottled water, you would think i could at least find some plain old dirt for sale.

i also realise that this probably makes me (as well as vegans in general) look completely crazy, so in an effort to combat the tofu-and-seaweed-eating-vegan stereotype, i'll mention that i'm *not* fond of tofu, and i'm not even sure what seaweed tastes like, much less eat it often.

i'm really not that crazy, i'm just in a crazy situation.

[meatless]

meatless: do you remember what the all-vegetable compost was called? the compost at the nursery i checked apparently contains blood meal or something.


I'll try and remember to have a look when I go to water my garden tonight. :)

[bethann]

If possible, steer clear of Home Depot and check out your local garden center / nursery. Usually they're much more helpful and knowledgeable about strange requests.

[spud]

dirt! I call it earth... but then I'm English. I'd be tempted to dig some up from somewhere else that has nice soil, like the edge of some woodland or beside a quiet road and take it home with me in bags. But maybe you live in a desert/big city? I've got loads and loads of dirt in my garden, what I need is sunshine :sunny:

[foobar]

bethann: i did try the nursery first, but did not get as much help as i hoped for. the first time i asked about vegan fertilizer at the nursery i was given a flat 'no', and told to contact the master gardners (a local extension program type of deal), as they might know something. when i went to the nursery looking for potting soil, about the best i could do was peat moss. sigh. apparently even when surrounded by plants, vegan requests are still thought of as weird.

spud: i thought about that, but i couldn't think of any likely places. but apparently now i don't have to, because after i called a few landscaping and rock type places, it seems that the topsoil they sell is 'plain dirt' without anything added to it, as opposed to the bag of 'topsoil' i bought at home depot which had stuff added to it. so now i get to purchase dirt. i wonder how cheap it will be.

[meatless]

I checked my dirt, and it doesn't have a brand that I could tell. It was just called something the lines of All Vegetable Compost, Organic

It wasn't hard to find at all... I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble!

[foobar]

I checked my dirt, and it doesn't have a brand that I could tell. It was just called something the lines of All Vegetable Compost, Organic

It wasn't hard to find at all... I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble!

thanks for checking. i guess i'll try looking harder next time i go out, maybe they have vegan compost hidden behind the non vegan compost.

[Dr. Schmeebis]

I experienced a disgustingly interesting thing at the nursery the other day. I examined a box of blood meal fertilizer, and it said that it is prohibited to feed it to ruminant livestock or expose livestock to it. Hmm.. and given that Mad Cow can jump the species gap to humans, one must wonder if concentrated cattle blood is the best thing to be handling these days.

[soilman]

Most human-inhabited places are near a source of free topsoil. You just go outside with a shovel, or a soup spoon. Commericially available topsoil is usually of no better quality.

[veganhabanero]

hmmm...well i think you're going to a bit of an extreme but don't mind me. I mean...when you go to the grocery store to buy some veggies....how do you know they weren't grown in whatever it is that you don't want them to be grown in......I dont think soil that you buy at the store typically has rotting flesh in its ingriedients...although i don't know personally....we just have to do our best in this filthy rotting world we live in....

[superjane]

first of all- "dirt" is misplaced soil, your garden is full of "soil". (I worked for soil scientists for two summers and this was their biggest pet peeve).

Secondly, I don't think there is "vegan" soil. If there is, it's obviously fake. Soil is a mixture of minerals, air, and organic material, which includes dead plants, dead animals, animal ****, animal fur, human remains, worms, insects, etc.

I'd say just go dig some up from a nearby field, borrow from a neighbour's garden, etc. Soil is all around us.

[WonderRandy]

There are parts of this island where soil is a rare, prized commodity. people go to great lengths to acquire soil and compost to make their land usable for something other than rock sculpture...

[superjane]

There are parts of this island where soil is a rare, prized commodity. people go to great lengths to acquire soil and compost to make their land usable for something other than rock sculpture...

good point. I guess I was thinking of continental NA, minus desert and arctic areas.

[WonderRandy]

for example, the topsoil in my yard is an average of about 2-4 inches deep...

[pearlofgaia]

If possible, steer clear of Home Depot and check out your local garden center / nursery. Usually they're much more helpful and knowledgeable about strange requests.

THAMK YOU for saying that, I can't believe how many people come in and they're like, "well I've been to Lowe's and Home Depot and..." and someone finally recommends them to us, and we can always help them.

We carry a brand called Whitney Farms, http://www.whitneyfarms.com/ I don't think it's vegan, :think: it has stuff like bat guano and worm castings in it, but its very good.

PS go to a bait shop and pick up some worms... they're really good for soil, and if you make your own compost heap, they help tremendously.
Good Luck!

[V3gan]

go into the bush. more so where there is mossy sorta ground. and dig up some top soil. i take samples in the bush for companies and you wouldnt belive the beautiful soil i turn up. and by rights if you go in bumb **** no where and get it it should be vegan. as vegan as you can get at least.