I can't afford the compost for soft fruit / veg in containers

Farway

cooking-mama wrote: »

is there an Asda near you?..ive been buying two 70L bags of multipurpose for £6.(normally £4, if bought individualy)

I used the ASDA stuff this year, seems very odd compared to others, it was fine last year

So far I have had Mares Tail & Couch grass [both are pernicious weeds] spring up in the troughs I filled with the Asda compost, fortunately I spotted it and removed them

I reckon it is mainly recycled garden waste that has not been composted properly and leaves bits of root still viable

sb44

s4lvatore wrote: »

Also that Wickes stuff, could you just use that in conatiners or would you need to add something to it?

I used it last year in pots and hanging baskets, got lots of healthy plants and didn't add anything extra to them (other than tomato feed when they started flowering).

A lot of the bags of compost I have bought in the past including the expensive ones contained lots of twigs etc but the Wickes ones hardly have anything in at all like that which is good.

Beccatje

Yep, I'll second what Optomisticpair said.
We do get easily sucked into things though, don't beat yourself up about it. We get enthousiastic and all. But before you know it, you've spent a lot of money where growing your own should be saving you money.

If you spend some now on improving your garden soil, it'll pay off for you or many years to come. While buying compost and filling pots is a bigger money pit. Try and get some help. Someone, maybe even a youngster who's strong and able, who's looking to earn a few extra bucks to dig over parts of your garden. I think that would be a much better investment. ANd with adding mulch and compost it'll improve over time.

Kevstir

Iv bought 320ltr of b&q compost this year and its been fine, thanks to this thread i picked up 4 bags of wicks compost for £12 (300ltr) today, seems like really good stuff, no twigs at all unlike the b&q stuff, lets hope the toms like it

laurel7172

Depending on what part of Cambridgeshire clay you're on, there's always Snowcap.

http://www.organicmushrooms.co.uk/compost.htm

Last time I checked, it was £50 for ten tonnes of used mushroom compost delivered-but only within 10 miles of Yaxley.

laurel7172

Oh, and I'm on solid Cambridgeshire clay. It's taken me the best part of a decade of dumping used compost and playpit sand and whatever on top of it, but the worms have done the work and the soil is definitely better than it was.

SallyForth_2

laurel7172 wrote: »

Depending on what part of Cambridgeshire clay you're on, there's always Snowcap.

http://www.organicmushrooms.co.uk/compost.htm

Last time I checked, it was £50 for ten tonnes of used mushroom compost delivered-but only within 10 miles of Yaxley.

Cricky :eek: Ten tonnes, how many of those huge bags is that?

Steel_2

I have a huge garden and am absolutely desperate for soil improver all the time. If I had to buy bags I'd be a pauper. The speed that you can make your own compost depends on what you put in the heap and how often you turn it.

I've made compost in a couple of months but I stuck to the rules about layering the brown and green stuff, using an accelerator (urine and nettles), covering it to keep it warm and turning it at least every two weeks by hand. I tried one of those tumblers and they didn't work for me so now I just use it to store used chicken bedding until I need it for the compost heap.

I have so much in the way of grass cuttings and used chicken bedding it's criminal to throw the stuff away.

All this talk of compost has given me the urge to go and turn my heaps this afternoon!

Seakay

twiglet98 wrote: »

I think we probably are 'sucked in' to some extent. I'm not young but I'm new to food growing - herbs, salad and toms 2 yrs ago, added runner beans, purple sprouting and courgettes last year, and hoped to grow all we would eat this year but it's not going to happen. The weekend papers are full of ads for potato bags, tomato bags, strawberry bags, all saying 'just add compost', all the talk is 'container veg' and for those of us who physically cannot dig, it sounds a magic way of growing food. It just costs an absolute fortune.

When I was little my grandfather had an allotment, my mother's cottage garden is brimming with flowers, but I never remember them using anything but manure for the veg and the roses, and maybe Growmore. Also that was on nice soil, not this awful clay. No DIY superstores selling multipurpose compost then, the local nurseries sold bags of peat as the soil improver. I have two Dalek compost bins on the go but it took a year to make one barrow load of compost, we have horse and chicken manure, and I'm still buying at least three bags of multipurpose compost a week to top up the potato bags before even starting with other containers. I got two sacks of seed compost for umpteen seeds that were 90% failure, and I honestly think I've had enough of throwing so much money away just to get a few meals' worth of home grown produce. The farm shop does veg better than I can and I'm going to stick to cherry tomatoes, lettuce, courgettes and soft fruit. Heigh-ho, 20-plus packs of seeds heading for freecycle

If son is a little unreliable for the collection of council soil improver, then remember that all those special offer composts other posters have told you about can be ordered for home delivery (possibly get some carrot sand at the same time to make it even more worthwhile)

If you do find a supplier of manure or large quantities of compost remember you can use it to create a bed without digging:
anything from 6-12 inches depth straight onto the soil/lawn in the shape of a bed; cover with black plastic (bin bags will do) old carpet etc.
Leave for aprox 6 months to rot and mature.
Cut holes in cover and plant straight in in first instance, cover will continue to suppress weeds.

twiglet98

Wow... thank you all SO much for some really brilliant ideas (sorry DD has had the computer for revision). My neighbour suggested topping up the potato bags with some old manure so they're filled to the top now and won't need any more - but in a bit of a lightbulb moment (a rare event chez twiglet) I had an idea - what about making a veg plot ON the former muck heap? New topic with more questions to follow!