Reclaim Organic Soil Conditioner

anyone used this?

I helped a professional landscaper all day today, assisting in planting loads of shrubs/plants in a large garden that is being landscaped from scratch

the beds were recently designed, and loads of Reclaim Soil Conditioner was added

from what I gather, it is very cheap and can be bought by the lorry load .... looks pretty good to me as the soil was very rich with loads of earthworms ...

herewith a link to the internet:

Frequently Asked Questions / Composting / Home - Recycle for West Sussex

could be good, especially when preparing a garden that will be turfed/seeded for grass/lawn? .... looks a damn side better than the black topsoil that was recently bought by a home developer and where I had to plant grass from seed at 4 new build homes (after removing zillions of weeds after the topsoil was added to the garden)

 

Have never heard of that before dim but it sounds like they are doing a great job, I have a big gardening project myself to do soon so I think I may try and get hold of some of this recycled compost beforehand and see what It's like. Do you know how much it costs?
:D

 

soil improver

I have often seen in garden centres, apart from composts, bags labelled soil conditioner. What's the difference?

 

not sure of the cost, but what I heard is that it is very cheap and available from your recycle centres ... it's not called compost (looks like compost) ... it's called 'soil conditioner'

from what I understand, it is made from the stuff people put in their green bins

I was a bit sceptical, but can say that it looks really good ...full of earthworms and would be superb to use when planting new grass from seed (before rotivating/turning the soil) ... will check costs etc when I get my next job to sow grass seed

I did see some of these bags at our local tip/recycle centre a while back, and they were 50 pence a bag, but never investigated further ... from what I gather, you can also buy builders bags or lorry loads of the stuff

we used it on the flower beds yesterday

 

We used to be able to get this 'soil conditioner' which was the product of all the green waste collected, FREE from our local councils (three shared the production facility) It was available for collection during the first week of each month. Limited to 4 sacks per collection. No longer available though, pity.

 

No one has yet come up with answer to my earlier question: what is the difference between compost and soil conditioner?

 

the price?

 

I think that the garden centre 'compost' is produced by the specialist horticultural companies and the compost contains some peat or coir as well as some plant food / chemicals, where as the 'soil conditioner' (usually produced from domestic green waste collections) is without any additions.

You may be able to get more specific information from companies such as A & E Thompson = Link http://www.compost-uk.co.uk/

 

we get free 'soil conditioner' (they are not allowed to call it compost!) from our local recycling centre. i know that it's not organic - we use it on our flower beds rather than the veg garden. my partner has just taken the trailer to get another load today - then i can use it as a mulch over the flower gardens before they are put to bed for the winter.

 

this is the stuff I'm talking about .... the guy I helped gets loads of this and uses it when sowing lawn seed and laying out new beds for plants ....

I will look more closely at this in spring as I have a few large jobs where I will be re-landscaping older gardens (remove loads of stuff and start from scratch)

it looks pretty good to me ... perhaps add a bit of well rotted manure and it may be very good for bedding plants ....

or add a thick layer before rotivating to sow grass seed, then a few months later after the grass has established, start adding granular lawn feed etc

 

I use it primarily as an annual top mulch on a large scale where quantities of well rotted manure aren't available or practical. Naturally it secondly becomes a soil improver as it works it's way down but it's the mulching qualities I find it great for. It forms a beautiful black crust which slowly degrades to the point that the following spring it can be grubbed up before the next season's mulch is applied. I can't remember how much per ton it works out loose but it's considerably less than the £32ish they charge for a cubic meter bag.

The only issue I would have would be as a planting medium for pots. Although it is great at preventing evaporation as a mulch, as a bulk it doesn't seem to retain water too well. It's classed as an aggregate as sand is added and it behaves as such, fill a pot then water the pot and the majority of the water comes straight out of the bottom. A decent 50/50 compost/conditioner mix would improve this though.

I've had great results improving clay soil with this and would highly recommend it. Definitely add manure if using as a planting medium for bedding plants too. Same principal as the pot really.

 

This is my contact, not in Surrey but I know they deliver to Reading, maybe further. not sure where dim is based.

Hills Group - recycling, waste management, quarrying and the building of new homes.