To the untrained eye, Kansas City's dirt seems great, all dark and moist and thick. But it's not. The darkness is good, but the thickness -- it's so dense that roots have to work too hard to spread. To yield good flowers and vegetables, the clay soil needs to be fixed up a little bit. Gardeners here need compost and a lot of it -- good, chunky compost, the stuff that makes little air pockets through which roots can weave and grow. It sounds easier than it is; to get enough compost to support a decent-sized garden, you need a mighty big pile. And if you go the store-bought compost route, you're going to have to spend a lot of money. Fortunately there's Missouri Organic Recycling. MOR has mountains of the clumpy black stuff. Just stop by with a pickup truck or a shovel and a bunch of heavy-duty garbage bags in a hatch back. For the cost of one store-bought bag, you can get four times as much compost. MOR even delivers for a small fee. Plus, it has top soil: a blend of sand, compost and clay, the kind KC would have if it were an ideal place to grow.
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