Free county compost

We've recently added an additional 320 square feet of garden space outside, which is awesome. The only problem? The soil is sugar sand. It's nearly white. We think it may have once been a beach, because we've found all kind of shells and oceanic things under the grass. It's the sunniest location on the property, but it's going to need work before we can really do anything with it.

Mr. Dennis told us that the county offered free mulch and compost, and we decided to investigate. There are five locations around Sarasota county that offer free compost for home use, and there's a ton of it. The local park down the street has a huge compost pile, and it's less than three miles from the house. There's going to be residual pesticides and fertilizers, but we don't think it'll be more than you find in the average lawn. We'll go investigate, and if it seems okay, we might go ahead and use it in our front bed.