Wickes GP compost 2012

What! Do something underhand like that! Never!!!

 

As in the song - The Twelfth of Never ("and that's a long long time")

 

I popped to Wickes yesterday to spend my £5 voucher, there wasn't anything else I needed. Their compost is now reduced to £1.99/bag. This might just be my local store so I bought a lot more than I intended to.

It does appear a bit nicer looking than the stuff they were selling in the spring, it's now more peaty looking and the woody bits aren't so obvious. Even though it looked useless I found the new formulation in the spring was just as good as anything else I bought for potting on, although not as seed sowing compost. I'll be going back to get some more, looks like they are trying to get rid of it before the end of season.

 

We were quite careful in assessing the compost and although the potted on plants did OK they needed a lot more watering than those in other compost. I'm not sure how it works but it did seem to absorb more water but then lost it quicker

 

We have cappilary matting in the greenhouse (probably need ot change it as it's been down years) but only on the benches. I also have a drip feed system on the matting that I haven't plugged in for years . Nowadays it's just a matter of dragging the hose to the greenhouse when we water the pots, baskets and nursery beds.

 

Yes I found it does dry out quickly and takes a bit more wetting when it is dry. I've been using it today to pot on my Brugmansias, I've been adding a sprinkle of water retaining gel to help them along.

I also used it to mulch my strawberries.

 

Let's hope so Scrungee.

Was the old 70 litre stuff still discounted?

 

Out of interest I called into Wickes this evening just to browse their compost, there were only the 70L bags there, no sign of any other 75L bags. They were selling the 70L bags at £1.99 in the autumn, I stocked up with a few then.

 

Last year they were selling them at £13 for 4 but I managed to get them down to £12 as they couldn't tell which was the new improved batch and which was the old batch - they had the same packaging. They told me that all their stock was new so it had to be the new batch, but they had left the £12 sign up so gave it to me at that price.

When I got it home it turned out to be the old (bad) batch. I phoned them and said I want my money back and can they come and pick up the bags. The manager told me to pop in to get my refund at any time and I could keep the compost. His comment was "I'd only have trouble selling it again and I'm fed up with it."

I received an email from Wickes yesterday giving me a £10 voucher. Have any of you received yours?