Reprinted with permission from The Reporter

Saturday • August 2, 2003

Erin Lubin/Special to The Reporter A groundskeeper spreads Jepson Prairie Organics' Four Course Compost near the Silverado Country Club clubhouse Friday.

Country Club Taps Compost Firm

By Reporter Staff

A Vacaville company and a championship Napa golf course have found common ground - literally. Jepson Prairie Organics has delivered 800 cubic yards of compost to Silverado Country Club where it is being used to revamp several fairways.

Jepson Prairie Organics' Four Course Compost is made primarily of food scraps collected at San Francisco's finest restaurants. Yard trimmings collected by Vacaville Sanitary Service and by Dixon Sanitary Service are also used as source material to make the compost, but most of the source material is food scraps. The finished compost is rich in nitrogen and other nutrients that are very beneficial to plants. Silverado Superintendent Bill Hamilton learned about the compost when he read an article in a local newspaper. In March, he asked Jepson Prairie Organics, which operates the compost facility at 6426 Hay Road, to send over some test loads. A month later, he asked JPO to send an 18-wheeler, and the day that load was delivered he ordered another. In total, Hamilton has ordered and received about 800 cubic yards of the compost.

The technique of using large amounts of compost to grow new fairways is new to California, Hamilton said. It could change the golf course industry. Compost is a natural fertilizer.