It's that time of year again - compost

I'm sure that I am not alone in sitting planning for this year's display whilst itching to get some seeds sown; we have decided that we are going to get some shelves that we can use to start stuff off indoors at the end of Feb/start of March to hopefully avoid having titchy wee plants that are not mature enough when they are planted out (particularly things like petunias for example).

All of my barrels will require their compost to be changed (that is a lot of compost!), with the old stuff going to be spread across the lawn to add some organic material.

For the past couple of years, I have used Jack's Magic, which seemed like a good buy not least as it is fine enough to use for seed sowing - but, none of my plants really excelled themselves even in baskets and planters; stuff grew OK, but nothing really grew to that 'nice, big healthy looking plant' stage, if you know what I mean?

So, what compost is everyone intending on using this year?

 

Good afternoon I always use West+ Multi Purpose Compost a little expensive but it works for Woo

 

At a rough calculation, I think I need somewhere in the region of 2000-2500 litres - is there anywhere that would supply the likes of West+ as recommended by our Woo, by the pallet?

 

No, that takes into account all containers, baskets, planting out etc. I used to use Homebase stuff which comes in the big 120L bales, but we lost our entire strawberry collection due to those wee white grub things eating the roots, and I am not convinced that they didn't come as a free gift with the compost

 

Soil is over £100 for a cubic metre, whereas I can get a bulk bag (900L) for just under £80 - BUT, that is delivered by crane to the driveway, and that would be something of a nightmare to get into the back garden; plus, three or four huge bags sat in the driveway would likely see it nicked before I could get it moved.

 

Only a passageway that runs between the side of the house and the outhouse - not all that wide, certainly not wide enough for a wheel barrow.

 

We always use Wickes MP (except for the year they made a b@lls up of it) and buy it in their 70 litre bags (used to be 75 litres). I don't know what price they will be selling it at this year but it was £14.69 for four (without any vouchers ). We get through about 6,000 litres in a season but we sow lots of seeds and do a lot of potting on.

We don't use any fertilisers to start with but they're usually being potted on a few times so can get by on the little that's in the compost. Once they're into 2 litre pots or bigger then we add some slow release fertiliser. Large pots and hanging baskets get watered with liquid fertiliser regularly.

We find the Wickes stuff perfectly adequate and quite economical in that quantity. We don't order bigger bags because of the problem with moving them.

 

I use the Wickes stuff mostly, same as Shiney it does Ok for me. I tried some Jacks Magic last year too, I think it did do slightly better but it's probably down to the amount of feed in it. As pete says you need to give a regular liquid feed to keep most things growing well over the season, particulary in containers, as the rain washes out nitrogen.

I also mix in water retaining crystals, I buy a few packs at a time from Amazon - again I think that's really necessary for containers.

I have access issues too and like the Wickes stuff as I can get 8 bags in my little car each time I pass Wickes then carry them to the back garden, it's gives me a bit of exercise after I get home from work and before tea

You only need to do that twice and it's over a 1,000 litres.