Multipurpose compost and where to get some/any?

joannaber

I left some spare seedlings and cuttings outside the house for people to help themselves as garden centres are closed.
They were quite popular with the neighbours!

Daisymaisy

Moneyineptitude said:

Do any of you posting about compost realise just how unessential this is in the current crisis? 

I'd question  B&Q even  selling  this at all at the moment, as encouraging sales of non-essentials is hardly  responsible. 

Apparently, the stores are deluged with Click & Collect purchases of paint rollers, tree bark and other non-essentials and with huge queues in their car parks to collect them

Technically it is not absolutely essential but some fruit and vegetables need to be started off indoors and potted on until the risk of frost has passed which necessitates the use of compost.  I plan to make one trip to buy the compost I need for this year's vegetable growing season and as soon as I can harvest from my allotment my reliance on the supermarket will be reduced limiting even further my contact with others when shopping for essentials.  Rightly or wrongly B&Q et al are currently allowed to do business and are making the best job of it they can by offering a contact-free click and collect service which seems to more than comply with social distancing.  
I agree with Davesnave that mental well being is important and some things need to be made available to keep people mentally happy but more importantly occupied with tasks in their own homes for as much time as possible.  The reality is that a lot of people are clearly finding it hard to stay in based on the packed parks etc.  
Based on the behaviour of people in supermarkets the more I can do to limit my need to visit the better.  Yesterday a woman with no patience and clearly little appreciation of the current situation was hovering a scant 50cm from me because she wanted to get to products on the shelf I was at.   I asked her if she would like to get any closer to me to which she held her hands up exclaiming 'OK, OK' as if I was the one in the wrong.  I had to ask another man to move back and respect the queuing distance markers as he had stood right behind me to pay.  The list of encounters in just this one outing goes on and each one affects my mental well being, increases my risk of getting the virus and indeed of spreading it in the period before symptoms appear should I catch it.
One socially distanced trip to get compost will reduce my current minimal contact with the outside world even further so I can only see this as a win-win situation for me, my local area and the country.

Davesnave

Moneyineptitude said:

Apparently, the stores are deluged with Click & Collect purchases of paint rollers, tree bark and other non-essentials and with huge queues in their car parks to collect them

Obviously, stores in different locales will have very varied customer bases, but I can tell you about the 'deluge' at my store today.

I arrived at 10.05, having tried to ring ahead, as requested, when leaving my first port of call.....Unfortunately, the one thing missing on my print-out was the store's phone number!  No matter, someone had realised this problem and written it on a board in the car park, so I was phoning when a store assistant asked if I had an order to collect. She took the details and in she went....

So far, so good.  

About ten minutes later, a male assistant appeared with my compost on a trolley, so I began to open my van doors for him, when he bellowed, "Stay in your vehicle!" Sheepishly, I hopped back inside. How silly of me; the print out said there would be assistance with loading. However, the man dumped the trolley and went inside again.

Other people began arriving. Dutifully, they all stayed in their cars, presumably having been told what the drill was.

The trolley man reappeared, this time with a large pallet of 100 litre bags. I began to say, "About my compost....?" but he turned and was gone again.  

Next out, was a lady with some plywood and paint.....

Then, silence. We sat in our vehicles looking at the stuff and each other, but still no one moved.

It was 10.25 when a lady assistant came out, looked at the stuff and then us, before asking, "Why aren't you loading?"

"We've been told to stay in our vehicles!"

"No," she said, "we bring it, you load it!"

"Oh!"

So, in around 1/2 an hour my local B&Q served a 'deluge' of 4 customers: a landscaper who took the big bags, a man who took the ply, another man who collected 2 tins of paint, and me! 

Can't tell you about the compost yet; I was so behind schedule after that they're still in the van, but due to a change to the re-stocking policy, they can't go back immediately anyway.

baggins11

I would agree with you about paint rollers etc not being essential but I think compost is one of the things that should be available.  The compost I have bought will mean I can go longer between supermarket shops as I can grow my own salad crops etc.  Especially with the food supply issues we might have over the next few months (with veg we usually ship from abroad) growing your own should actually be encouraged nationally.  Admittedly some people buy compost for flowers but I suspect most people buying it at the moment are doing so to grow veg.  I think anyone complaining about people buying compost probably hasn't grown veg before.

[Deleted User]

Davesnave said:

Moneyineptitude said:

Apparently, the stores are deluged with Click & Collect purchases of paint rollers, tree bark and other non-essentials and with huge queues in their car parks to collect them

Obviously, stores in different locales will have very varied customer bases, but I can tell you about the 'deluge' at my store today.

My reference was to what I was told about last weekend, certainly it may well be quieter on a weekday. Personally, I'm staying well clear of non-essential shopping so I can only rely on what others are saying on social media. 

While many of your criticisms are valid, did you really expect someone to go near (or inside)  the capsule of potential Covid19 you were driving? I imagine the staff are harsh in their  manner due to the number of people ignorant of social distancing who they are dealing with constantly.   

B&Q have now furloughed around 50% of their staff around the country, so I would expect the "service" you get in the near future to be even less outstanding. 

[Deleted User]

baggins11 said:  I think anyone complaining about people buying compost probably hasn't grown veg before.

I don't think anyone alive today has attempted to grow veg during a global pandemic since the last one was in 1918..

-taff

Irrelevant. The point was that people have been probably buying compost for veg.

I buy compost every year to sow seeds. It's around this time of year that people do buy compost normally anyway for sowing seeds. I expect what is normal volume for compost buying has just set in over one week instead of the four or five it usually is as people realise they might not be able to get it where and when they usually do.

Luckily I bought mine before the lockdown.

[Deleted User]

-taff said:

Luckily I bought mine before the lockdown.

and that should be the only point...

In other news, garden waste collections have been suspended for the duration in most areas. As such, wouldn't it be sensible to make compost from this waste?  

Davesnave

Moneyineptitude said:

Davesnave said:

Moneyineptitude said:

Apparently, the stores are deluged with Click & Collect purchases of paint rollers, tree bark and other non-essentials and with huge queues in their car parks to collect them

Obviously, stores in different locales will have very varied customer bases, but I can tell you about the 'deluge' at my store today.

While many of your criticisms are valid, did you really expect someone to go near (or inside)  the capsule of potential Covid19 you were driving?

 Where did I say that and why the melodramatic description? Having read the print-out,I expected the person to bring the trolley closer to the vehicle than 15m, stand back and allow me to load and close the vehicle, then, after I'd climbed in, they'd remove the trolley. Seemed sensible enough.

The situation was quite funny and a wonderful example of British !!!!!!-ups and forbearance, but sadly, in your case, it was "Whoosh!"

I'm sure B&Q will soon realise their error in failing to match the info on the print-out to their new way of working. It does speak of 'contact-free' so it's been updated, but not effectively.

-taff

Moneyineptitude said:

-taff said:

Luckily I bought mine before the lockdown.

and that should be the only point...

In other news, garden waste collections have been suspended for the duration in most areas. As such, wouldn't it be sensible to make compost from this waste?  

Again, I do already, except for perennial weed roots. My collection got suspended a couple of weeks ago. There's nothing in mine at the moment except perennial roots dug out from a 12 x 4 ft new edged bed made with pretty 4 by 4s and by the time the collections kick back in again they'll be shrivelled up to nothing and weight much less than they do now.

And I got six wheelbarrows of compost from my bargain £4 bin that costs about 167 new.

I did raise the possibility of chickens to the OH [ we did have some before] who said, you'll have to kill them then, to which I replied , OK. Then he said no.....So no fresh chicken food or eggs for us.