Compost & Mulch Instructions

COMPOST
(Made from Castro Valley’s food scraps & yard trimmings!)
Adding compost brings life to soil.  Just one teaspoon can have more than one billion beneficial microbes.
New gardens:  Add 4-6” before planting.
Established gardens:  Add 2-4” before each planting.
Potted plants:  Add 1 part compost to 3 parts potting mix.
New trees and shrubs:  Add a 5 gallon bucket for every 1-2 gallons of the tree/shrub container size.

MULCH
Mulch conserves water, enhances the growth of plants, suppresses weeds, and controls topsoil erosion.
Use gloves to evenly spread 3-4” of mulch over bare soil.
Replenish annually or as needed.

Keep recycling food scraps in your green organics cart to continue the cycle!
CASTRO VALLEY SANITARY DISTRICT  510-537-0757  |  www.cvsan.org

Home Composting

A healthy garden starts with healthy, living soil.
 
It is something of a miracle to see broccoli stems, orange peels, and fallen leaves change into dark, sweet-smelling earth. Composting—collecting organic materials and combining them in a manner that will encourage their breakdown—makes use of the natural process of decomposition to create a high-quality soil conditioner.

Organic material is different forms of living or dead plant and animal material. It is compost. Fallen leaves. Grass clippings. Woodchips. Sawdust. Manure. Kitchen scraps. It is the cornerstone of organic gardening and a universally recognized soil amendment. Above all, organic matter is food for the living organisms in the soil. And keeping soil critters well fed ensures that all the other qualities a gardener seeks in soil will gradually increase. Adding organic matter ensures that soil will have:

• good structure
• sufficient water retention
• proper drainage
• nutrient supply and cycling
• disease resistance

Your own homegrown compost is a slow-release fertilizer. When you distribute it in your garden, you are amending the soil—and, ultimately, increasing its nutrient content and its nutrient-holding and nutrient-cycling capacity. 
 

Start composting and building healthy soil!
Learn more about our discount compost bins
or
Build your own. 

Compost Bins

StopWaste.Org's Bay-Friendly Gardening program of Alameda County is no longer subsidizing the price of backyard compost and worm bins.  For more information, please visit StopWaste.Org's website.

For information on how to build your own compost bin, please click here.

Compost and worm bins are available for purchase at non-discount prices from a variety of retailers.  Please click here for a listing of retailers.

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Davis Street Garden Center

Davis Street Garden Center
 - 2615 Davis Street
, San Leandro, CA 94577

The Garden Center at Davis Street continues to serve green-thumbed customers with a variety of products for use in your garden throughout the year.

Open to the public, The Garden Center at Davis is a unique partnership with such companies as Grover Landscaping in Vernalis, California. Grover takes the green waste collected and processed at DSTS and turns it into a variety of products for consumer use. Green waste material in the form of topsoil, whole earth compost, smart grow compost, and a variety of mulches are available at competitive prices for use in your garden.

Hours of Operation
The Garden Center is located within the Transfer Station at the foot of Davis Street west, and our hours of operation are as follows:


Monday - 7:00 am - 5:00 pm

Tuesday - 7:00 am - 5:00 pm
Wednesday - 7:00 am - 5:00 pm 

Thursday - 7:00 am - 5:00 pm 

Friday - 7:00 am - 5:00 pm 

Saturday - 8:00 am - 4:00 pm 


DSGC is CLOSED on the following holidays: New Years Day, Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.

Products
Davis Street's Garden Center features several products produced from locally-generated materials.

Grover's Wonder Grow is the result of Alameda county's organics. Your yard trimmings and food scraps are composted at their Vernalis facility using 100% organic processes, and brought back for a rich soil amendment to your garden.

ZBest's Smart Grow comes from Alameda county's commercial food waste efforts. Restaurants and event venues across Alameda, Contra Costa and other Northern California counties send material for compost at their Gilroy site. There it's composted using Ag Bag technology. The resulting soil amendment is ideal for commercial and landscaping applications.

We have 3 colors of colored mulch: Red, Brown and Black. These are the results of wood recycling efforts at Davis Street.

Also available at the Garden Center: Deco Bark, Redwood String and Playground Chips.

For more information on products and prices please call the DSGC at (510) 638-2303