Top soil Where to get some cheap or free?

bha.fatboy

This may not be the right place to ask this as I am a newbie but I am after some topsoil for our raised beds in the Brighton and Hove area. Does anybody know where I can get some free or cheap or any other recomendations so I can start planting as all our seed is growing rapidly in the greenhouse.

Many thanks

David

Lord_Gardener

Might be worth checking out your local freecycle!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclebrighton/

bha.fatboy

I have already posted on there but thanks

kethry

we have the same problem: filling new raised beds, and instead of going for topsoil, i went for the compost option. slightly more expensive than free soil, but i looked around on the council website (I'm in manchester so that specific website is no good to you!) for composters, and found a company recycling all the fruit and veg waste off the local market, turning it into compost. great stuff, we've just had a cubic square meter (or so) delivered for £12.50, and unlike manure, you can use it straight away. get onto Brighton Council, they may offer something similar, many councils are these days, if nothing else, composting all the garden waste from parks etc., in an effort to reduce the landfill problems.

what you need to do is to dig your bed out, dig the topsoil out, fill with the compost, then put the topsoil back. thats what i'm doing, and growing me own veg there - they should have a super start with all this compost (it was still steaming when they delivered it!).

HTH

keth
xx

torbrex

Have you tried your local council, I know that here in Fife they usually have something available.

Debt_Free_Chick

Not free, but I had 15 tonnes of excellent t/s from DMS near Lewes, which was the best price I could find in East Sussex.

pippo

Durham County Council are giving away compost on particular days through March & April it was in the council news letter & should be on their website - hope this helps somebody here in the north.

bha.fatboy

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Not free, but I had 15 tonnes of excellent t/s from DMS near Lewes, which was the best price I could find in East Sussex.

Wow 15 tonnes:eek: that is a lot of topsoil. How much did it cost you if you do not mind me asking? I have e-mailed them so hope they get back to me

cheers

Debt_Free_Chick

bha.fatboy wrote:

Wow 15 tonnes:eek: that is a lot of topsoil. How much did it cost you if you do not mind me asking? I have e-mailed them so hope they get back to me

cheers

£394 :eek: but delivery was in addition. We knew someone locally with a tipper truck who delivered for £100 :eek: Bear in mind that we might have got a discounted price for the quantity, though

However, our previous quote for was two loads at £374 EACH :eek: :eek: :eek: from Gardenscape, so we ended up paying (nearly) half what we'd originally budgeted. Also, we mixed the topsoil with some of our existing clay, which had been worked with copious amounts of manure & compost over the past 4 years.

And we didn't buy "pure" topsoil - it was 7:1:1 of topsoil, mushroom compost and horticultural grit. Not sure if this made it more or less expensive though! But it's beautiful stuff and will be lovely to work with.

We've just built four raised beds from railway sleepers as we grow a lot of veg. We're trying to be almost self sufficient in veg, but that will be really difficult to achieve in practice. I would guess - somewhat unscientifically - that we were previously 75% self sufficient, but hope to increase that to 90-95% in the next 12 months. March-June is difficult to cope with

We eat a lot of potatoes and will never grow enough to be self sufficient , but our best effort was 2005/2006 when we bought no potatoes from July through to February :T

I need to be more planned for Winter veg, especially brassicas. I'm planning to have some fresh winter veg right through from November 2007 to March 2008 - cabbage, cauli, kale, leeks, purple sprouting, sprouts, parsnips & swiss chard will be the backbone of this plan, if only I can keep up with the constant sowing, transplanting & thinning!

If only it would stop raining - it's driving me potty as we are on Wealden clay and the whole area is a complete quagmire. I could change my clothes three or four times a day at the moment :mad: :eek: as I have an energetic Springer to exercise!

cornishpirate

Whatever you do make sure you get it from a reputable source and that it is free from pest and diseases! Down here in Cornwall there is no end of trouble with Japanese Knot Weed, which once rooted is extremely hard to treat.

angelavdavis

I live further along the coast in St Leonards and can say who not to go to! I went to stamco and what I got was sandy subsoil - I was really disappointed to be honest. I spent a fortune adding nutrients to it before I could plant up my beds last year.

Not only that, but one bag had a layer of rubble buried in it about half way down the bag! It was delivered while I had popped out so I wasn't in a position to send it back.

I have to say though, its clear you get what you pay for. I had never bought topsoil before so had no idea of price. I paid £80 for a one tonne bag and had four bags delivered.

My garden recovered and we managed to get quite a bit out of the vegetable garden: http://groups.msn.com/AngelasPhotographicEmporium/gardenproject2005.msnw?Page=2