Awesome compost equals great veggies all summer long. Great service from Jeff as well. I have used the S. Seattle site for a couple of years with no complaints and no BS... Unless I asked for it (they call it booster blend) I found that 2 parts veggie 1 part compost and 1 part booster works great! Very affordable when you pick up yourself and take advantage of seasonal promotions. read more

I used to use Cedar Grove products for my landscape projects whenever I could. Loved their educational talks for landscape professionals. They were considered the gold standard in the industry for their quality control. What happened? After being away from landscaping for a few years, I recently ordered a load of their fine mulch for my own yard. As I was looking it up on the internet, I ran across lots of bad reviews, but didn't believe them, relying instead of my experiences with them in years past. Should have listened. The 11-yard batch I ordered was chock full of plastic, paper and other fibers and is just a mess. And now that mess is all over my yard. Didn't notice while it was getting placed, but it's sure noticeable now. I called Cedar Grove to see if they had an explanation. I really didn't want to stop recommending them, but...my yard told me I should. When I called, they sounded all apologetic and gee whiz, we're gonna look into that and get back to you. That was over 2 weeks ago. Never heard back. That's not the Cedar Grove I used to know, but perhaps it is now. I'm going to have to find a new mulch for next year, I guess. read more

TONS OF PLASTIC PIECES in bagged soil. Bought a lot of garden soil, compost and a topsoil in bags fill 0.8 cubic yard raised bed. Raised a complaint and haven't heard from them. Need to replace all this soil with something that's not toxic when growing your own vegetables. DO NOT recommend. read more

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I called their main number. They set me up with the place on Cedar Grove Rd. in Maple Valley got their hours. Sent my man out there on Friday, 22nd of May at noon and they are already closing up the girl that handles the Cash has gone home, they said come back tomorrow. They'd be open so I sent my guy back over there today, which is Saturday the 23rd. There was a whole bunch of trucks and trailers and cars and people to get material but nobody was home so it cost me about $170 in man hours and diesel fuel and got nothing and to go to another business in Black diamond to get my soil read more

If you're going to dump yard waste and you see a white Volkswagen turn around. Was quoted 8 yards in my small pickup. read more

If I could post zero stars I would, I don't use the compost because of the horrid smell that permeates the air & the extremely suspicious red cloud that glows above the facility @ 12 am during "composting hours". Seeing all of the garbage they are mixing into the soil in various reviews, it is clear the creepy glow is toxic chemicals burning from the plastic and debris littered in their top soil mixes. It's repulsive! read more

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Employee are nice and there is a great selection. The prices are affordable. I would recommend Cedar Grove Composting to anyone.

Buyer Beware! I ordered 8 yards of landscape mulch and was totally surprised to see that the load contained a huge amount of chunks some of which were quite large. I assumed they would break down as I moved the mulch but I was totally wrong. Most of the chunks are very solid (some are like clay) and I eventually quit trying to break them up. The quantity and hardness of the chunks also makes the mulch difficult to shovel and I found that it was much easier to use a four prong rake to break it up a bit and then rake it into a 5 gallon pail to load it into a wheelbarrow. As other reviewers have noted the mulch is also full of plastic wrap and bits of other stuff (glass, nails, hard plastic pieces, etc.). The landscape mulch that was delivered to my house looks nothing like the picture on the website! I do not recommend this product and definitely regret the purchase. read more

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Got their "Topsoil Special 60/40" which was supposed to drain well due to high percentage of sand. Used this to fill in low spots in our yard and also raise a large section to be level (8 yards total). Had it delivered last April and have been struggling with it since. It killed all the grass on our yard wherever it was spread. In the area we tried to level have put tons of grass seed with peat moss on top to hold in moisture and add nutrients. THree times tried to get grass to grow and each time it ended up dying (I have done five lawns from scratch over the years and am proud of how well and quickly all those project went). Then after the rains started, THOUSANDS of small mushrooms grew out of this soil and also THOUSANDS of small hard-shelled bugs came out of the soil. I am sending it in to a lab to get it tested to find out why it is killing grass. I also called in to complain and was told there was NO WAY that bugs or mushrooms could have come from the soil they sold me, as it is sterilized during manufacturing. I asked to have a supervisor call me and STILL have not heard back (has been a week). I will not call again till I have the results of the soil sample back. I am concerned it has something in it that will require removal of the soil (at great cost). read more

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Smells terrible, has bits of plastic and other trash in it. Attracts flies because it smells like garbage. I no longer buy this compost. Now I spend more money and buy EB Stone's organic compost. Doesn't smell bad and I haven't found one piece of trash in this compost. read more

We have heard great things about municipal compost and the benefits to the environment, so we ordered 10 yards of Cedar Grove product from our local distributer. BIG MISTAKE. From a distance it looks beautiful - not too many plastic pieces or produce stickers. But once you "see" the microplastics and plastic bag fragments, you can't "unsee" them. They permeate every shovel full. This is probably fine for industrial use, but it makes me feel like I'm just shoveling garbage on my yard - and I now as the soil compacts, it would make a layer of plastic. read more

Ordered 5 yards of their landscape mulch but probably got 4 yards of mulch and 1 yard of bits of colored plastic, plastic bag remnants, and even bits of glass. Every time it rains all my beds show new bits - not what I expected. I sent Cedar Grove an email asking if it was normal for their landscape mulch to be so dirty - no reply. I just wanted to let others know what they might be getting from Cedar Grove - buyer beware. read more

My roommates and I purchased 6yds of the Vegetable Garden Mix, which Cedar Grove describes as perfect for raised vegetable garden beds. As I started to fill my raised beds, the entire time I was moving the dirt, I kept thinking to myself "Is is possible we were delivered the wrong soil?" The dirt is full of glass, and plastic bits, and pieces of plastic bag, it it not "light" like they say in the description. It is heavy and sandy, hard and chunky. As we progressed deeper into the pile, there was a layer of moldy dirt, and the smell as we worked through the pile was fowl, and rotten. I know good rich soil will always have a certain stink to them, but it is an organic manure smell, this was NOT that rich soil smell. After planting veggies in 3 different raised beds my vegetables have hardly grown at all. We were given some starts by a friend, and their starts from the same batch are twice the size of ours (they used bags of soil). My lettuce wont even start in this soil! A part of me hopes we were delivered the wrong dirt seeing as this "vegetable mix" is horrible. I have attempted to add nutrients and compost, but I'm afraid it might be too late, and my vegetable gardens and all my hard work are ruined by this crappy soil. read more

I wish I could rate zero stars. This company routinely fills all of east King County (Issaquah, Renton, Maple Valley) with noxious odor emissions that have made me, at least me, routinely sick. Complaints have been filed with Puget Sound Clean Air for years and Cedar Grove Compost has been cited routinely, still they refuse to process responsibly. Complaints and citations are public record and available upon request. We have not been able to keep our doors or windows open all summer. The noxious odor emissions reach as far as I90. Cedar Grove shows no regard or respect for the people they impact and routinely deny they're the issue (complaints from numerous neighborhoods and citations issued from site visits tell a different story - the truth). Yes, they are processing compost, but they are also seriously polluting the air. How is that a win? It's not. I will never give this company one dime. The Maple Valley facility processes Seattle composting; residential and commercial. The smell is putrid, rotten and actually burns the nose. It sticks inside the nose, so it's all you smell the entire spring and summer. It's horrible. We live miles from this facility and it's a absolute nightmare. read more

Shame shame on this supposedly environmentally friendly facility. Paid so much money for garbage, and I mean garbage. Their compost has plastic pieces and glass shards that will forever be in my garden, and it continues to be moldy. I'm now having to amend my garden and right the wrong, because this compost is very low in nitrogen, which is terrible for a vegetable garden. Buyer beware! Don't ever put their compost in your garden! read more

2015 update to my review in 2013. To this day we still have GLASS SHARDS and every kind of PLASTIC material throughout our garden area from the soil we bought from Cedar Grove 2 years ago. It disgusts me that I paid so much for this soil that contains chopped up NON-biodegradable garbage that remains in my yard forever or until I sit and pick out every piece by hand. IT'S NOT ORGANIC so buyer beware !!! read more

Wish I had read other reviews first...have used this product in the past and it was 5 star then. But like others my three yards has chunks of hard plastics and shredded plastic bags throughout. My beds look like s- - t...This used to be an absolutely PRIMO product! Called to see if something can be worked out...stay tuned....don't hold your breath!!! Disappointed in Maple Valley! How do I rate zero stars??? Heres is a great update. Called their quality control person and they too were appalled. They made better by providing a yard of quality product!! Thank you Davefor facilitating this. read more

Jeff at the Seattle locating was incredible. He was helpful in every way he could be for us. He recommended the mix based on our application use. Of course we got our mix and our garden bed looks great! Didn't expect to have great customer service to boot! read more

Wow. This stuff smells like a bag of crap. I had 3 bags of compost from cedar grove in my trunk overnight until my son could move it out. I don't know if my car will ever lose the smell. Thanks, guys! Maybe I need to buy a bottle of febreeze, I've heard of people using it to mask the smell of a dead body they've stashed. Not sure it will work on this. There is no way this stuff has no biosolids in it, as claimed on the bag. I buy compost regularly for my garden, even the stuff with manure in it has nothing on this. read more

Love this place! Not only can I take my yard waste there and dump it inexpensively (and responsibly), I can buy amazing mulch, organic junk for my garden, etc. read more

Bought 10 bags of Organic Compost. It is loaded with bits of glass, plastic bags (not bio bags), pieces of plastic, metal and bottle caps. And they have the gaul to charge higher prices for 'organic.' I'll be picking it pout of the yard for years. Just trash. I'll never buy their products again. read more

Love dumping my excess yard waste at Cedar Grove! It's super easy, affordable, the gals at the window are always nice, back in the truck and dump the load, done! They in turn create a superior product that I trust in my vegetable garden, thanks! read more

Don't buy. It ruined my garden. Its problems include: hard lumps, earwigs, mites, and mold spots. I'm a beginning gardener and thought this was normal. It's not. 'm trying to grow produce to save money in the long run and guarantee some produce during these uncertain times. I did my research and grew seedlings under a lamp and then in a greenhouse only to transplant them and have 90% of the plants out of hundreds die as soon as the mix with this compost was introduced into the process. I've planted six rounds of seeds since early March and almost everything died. Thinking that transplanting was the problem, I planted seeds directly into my soil mix. The few seeds that grew had first leaves and then stopped growing. Others died from mold.I tried different methods of growing seedlings etc, but as soon as this compost came into play, everything died. Even with amendment to increase drainage etc, it compacts into a slippery clay-like substance that plants cannot penetrate. Yes, I watered properly, used high quality seeds, had a good mix, had sun, fertilized, etc. Seeds that I planted in my not great yard soil are growing normally in comparison. I'm trying expensive remedies to help the soil and hopefully save my garden, but it's probably too late to hope for any produce this year. I'm furious and frustrated. Cedar Grove needs to reimburse me for the ruined vegetable garden from new seeds, full soil amendments, and labor. If there is a class action lawsuit, I'll join it. read more

If you need garden soil this is a great place. Generous scoops and a reasonable price.

I too had disappointing experience with the 10 yds of garden mulch.....lots of bits of plastic and many hard balls of dirt that was very difficult to break up. read more

I'd give them zero stars if I could. I'm all for Composting and Seattle being "green", but the economic, social and psychological impact their facilities have on adjacent neighborhoods is atrocious. Part of being "green" is leaving no trace and not impacting the area. Cedar Grove Composting has been unresponsive to odor impact complaints for years and has been insensitive and uncaring about how it affects surrounding communities. They pay the fines and keep violating clean air laws because its more profitable than to do what's right. They've even backed proposed legislation that would categorize them as "agricultural" to protect against any future lawsuits regarding odor. Shameful, Mr. Banchero. Just shameful. I will not buy CGC products until CGC (if ever) becomes an ethical business. read more

I would give this review zero stars if I could. Last spring I decided to bring in 2 pickup loads of Cedar Grove Compost for my flower and vegetable garden. That turned out to be a huge mistake! During that growing season my garden became infested with weeds the likes my garden has never seen. That was the first and last time I will ever use ANY of their products. read more

I'd give Cedar Grove Compost less than one star if I could. They are basically recycling and selling garbage. My husband got a pickup truck load of compost there to top-dress my large garden in preparation for a garden tour. The first problem is that the stuff wasn't well composted so it smelled to high Heaven and was very sticky and heavy which formed big hardened cement-like clumps in the garden. But, the worst problem is that the compost was full of plastics of all shapes, colors and gauges. I had to meticulously remove by hand all that I was able to pull out of the so-called compost. I then had a big cardboard box of the stuff which I took back to Cedar Grove and demanded my money back because I hadn't intended to buy such garbage. He was nice about it and refunded my money and said, if we had brought back our truckload they would have shoveled it back out for us. I wish I had known that because we would have done that. It is a shame that this company is spreading plastics all over the place now and plastics are known to be a real biological problem for the environment and animals. read more

Bumping this up due to their great customer service and desire to remedy the situation. They refunded me for a yard and sent gift certificates for compost to amend the soil. They also asked me to share my soil test results with them that show very low nitrogen and very high phosphorus, which is not ideal for vegetables. Note, PH and Potash were fine. I've been gardening for years and I know the first year of any new soil can be tricky, but did expect this to be better quality out of the box. Anyway, thanks for listening Cedar Grove and offering compensation! Original review: Giving them 1 star is generous. 1st, when they delivered my garden soil and gravel, they dumped them so close together that basically at least a yard of dirt was wasted because it got mixed with the gravel. 2nd, this has got to be the worst garden soil I've ever had. All my plants are dying and it's full of weed seeds. I've basically given up having a garden this year. read more

Cedar Grove falsely advertises their product and provides terrible customer service. Their "topsoils" have extremely bad drainage and are full of clumps of clay which is the worst possible soil to plant in. Cedar grove advertises their topsoils as being good for planting new landscapes, but the poor drainage will kill your plants. I bought a bulk order of 3 way topsoil (which is described on the website as sandy loam but definitely is not). I mixed some into the front yard and then left some in a pile with a plant (Taxus, yew) in it over the winter. The plant slowly lost it's color then died. I did my research. The grey color of the soil, the clumps and the fact that the plant lost it's green color and had poorly developed soggy roots are classic signs of clay soil. I started with sandy soil and thought I was adding sandy loam, when in fact I was adding clay. The clay made matters worse since it created hard pan when mixed with the sand. It turns out there is no industry standard for calling something "loam", so they just slap that label on whatever they have available to sell. Then I started reading about Cedar Grove online and saw that other people had reviewed the bad quality of their products as well, many saying the same thing about drainage and that they found garbage and glass in the compost. I really wish I had read the online reviews before I spent $450 on a pile of sludge that now I can't even use in my garden. I actually started putting small amounts of it in the yard waste bin every week just to get rid of it. I called Cedar Grove to tell them that I was unhappy with my purchase. They took a message and told me I had to wait to hear back from a supervisor. I never got a call back. I had to call 4 times before I actually got through to a supervisor. When I did finally get someone on the phone, he was rude and argumentative. He insisted on coming to my house to see the soil, so I let him come see it. When he was at my house, he was a total jerk. In fact, he said the only thing he could do was to have Cedar Grove test the soil I had in my yard and then charge me another $300 if the results came back in their favor. I couldn't believe they were trying to take another $300 of my money. It doesn't even cost $300 to get soil tested. They were still trying to make a profit off of me. It was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. They clearly do not value their customers or stand behind their product. Don't ever buy from Cedar Grove. read more

Cedar Grove- Please post a warning on your products. Noticed my dog licking her paws a lot and see occasional red raw spots between her toes. After this last rain we're seeing lots of fragments of plastic and glass (!!) in the compost. Called local supplier Sayers Fuel and they confirm an ongoing concern about glass, plastic, trash bits in Cedar Grove Compost. Said they've given up complaining. Posted this on Next Door Neighbor-other folks notice glass and plastic shards in their compost as well. read more

Great customer service. Had a problem and they drove to my house to take a look and walk though the challenge.

I purchased two bags of Cedar Grove potting soil from Home Depot because i wanted to support local businesses but what I got was sharp shards of glass and plastic and garbage. I phoned both Cedar Grove and Home depot to let them know how disappointed I am with the product. read more

I have been using Cedar Grove compost for my raised bed over two years and I had a very positive experience. Cedar Grove also donates compost to River restoration project in Carnation and other projects, one of which I was part of. read more

We received 12 yards of Cedar Grove Compost last season (2018). It was FILLED with small bits of plastic. I complained to the company last year and never heard back. There are obviously problems with communicating the importance of NOT putting plastic in consumer's yard waste containers. But there should be QC on both the input end of collection, and QC on the final material before delivery. We will be picking bits of plastics out of our garden until the day we die. I highly recommend not putting Cedar Grove Compost on your garden. read more

I just wan to add, I find it comical that the top review From Hallie H. is probably due to the fact that she has a business partnership with Cedar Grove, and left an identical review on another composting business' Yelp page. It's easy to Google and find out this info guys. Biased reviews based on business agreements still does not remove the plastic from soil. read more

As a long time user of compost -- even making my own -- this has got to be the smelliest mulch ever. It smells like cat sh*t and is now growing mold on top after I applied it a few days ago! This is just from one bag I spread onto a small garden bed off my patio. I will be scooping this up and getting rid of it. Not going to apply the second bag I have -- that will be promptly returned to Home Depot where I made the purchase. Just disgusting. read more

Buyer beware! I ordered online, high delivery fee ($85), I gave a 3 day mid week delivery window, they went with Wed late afternoon. At 30 mins late I called the dispatcher and was told they are a little late, but will be there soon. At an hour and a half I called again and was told they were running a little behind, no clue when he might make it out, but it should be today... it was 3 hours late from scheduled delivery time till I finally got it, and I live 15 mins from one of their locations. I wont be ordering from them again any time soon. read more

I bought yards of garden soil. I noticed a lot of little flies above and in the soil but don't know if that was causing any problem. Later in the year, some of the bushes we bought started losing leaves and eventually died even with regular water and planted correctly. I've had more success with other soil from other businesses over the years. read more

This disgusting company has a Comcast-like monopoly hereabouts and has "green" initiatives everywhere. Don't be fooled. They are crooks who shred plastic into their mix, add sawdust for filler and blame it on "the city people" who put plastic in their compost bins. I ordered several loads of "Booster Blend." First, there was a huge difference between the loads. The first was fine and crumbly - until I spotted the plastic that pervades every square foot - while the second was like charred wood but with enough manure smell to make it convincing. It too was full of plastic: red, blue, green flecks and twists through out, plus black and gray shreds, fragments of white printed labels and some glass. Further, instead of "garden clippings" I clearly got a mix with sawdust and shredded wood. Because it's black and I garden in the evening it's hard to see. Anyway, I worked it into my reliable old sandy soil as recommended. Water can't penetrate this stuff. When I water, it looks like it's absorbed but even after 10 minutes of standing there with the hose, I can brush away the first 1/4" and it's bone dry underneath. Not even my trick of pokine holes in the soil with a piece of rebar worked. The holes get filled with water that doesn't permeate. I regret my choice this season and have ruined my soil because owner J. Stephan Banchero, III would rather shred pollutants than invest in technology that would remove it. read more