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Where do you get your compost
paul_in_surrey
Posts: 239
Watching GW last night I was amazed at the amount of compost Monty goes through. Even his Boxes seemed to be growing in pure compost. I know he has whopping great bins and has been making it for years (and probably gets some freebies from the manufacturers), but for me this is becoming more of a limiting factor than the plants. Even though I've got a couple of bins going at the allotment I don't think they are the best for containers and don't seem to go very far when spread on beds. The cost at garden centres can be quite high even though I usually look around for bargains. Buying a big delivered load would be quite a significant outlay and use up most of the budget for the summer though may be cheaper in the long run.
Wondering what the rest of you do. Are you spending more on compost than plants? Do you buy bulk - or make frequent trips to the GC? Are you self-sufficient, and if so HOW??
Wondering what the rest of you do. Are you spending more on compost than plants? Do you buy bulk - or make frequent trips to the GC? Are you self-sufficient, and if so HOW??
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
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Buying in bulk sounds attractive but you can never be quite sure what you're buying or what diseases you're importing.
i make a lot through the year, enough to cover my garden every winter, then start again ready for this coming winter.
I buy 60 bags a year of good stuff from the garden centre, that’s for seeds and cuttings, baskets tubs, I don’t use mine for that, I do use it in the GH for the tomatoes.
Ive used 9 bags already and I haven’t pricked out yet, apart from tomato plants.
This has been brought in by the truckload as each border was made. The 2 largest borders each required about 2.5 loads.
Fortunately, we could afford to buy the compost in such large quantities and it is certainly much, much cheaper to buy these products loose by the cubic metre. However, if it cannot be tipped where you will be using it, you will need space to set aside an area for the lorry to dump it's load.
Next cheapest is also to buy the compost in bulk - but, this time, 'loose packaged' in cubic metre builders' dumpy bags. This is much tidier than having a huge pile of compost / mulch on tarpaulin on your drive. Our local company have a hoist on their truck to lift the bags. You need to have an area available that the lorry can access with room to use the hoist and then leave the bag(s) in situ for a few days while you barrow the contents around the garden.
Next cheapest is also a bulk buy - this time smaller bags like those sold in garden centres but you buy a whole pallet's worth. Again you need an accessible storage area. The lorry will usually deliver to the kerbside and use a small fork lift to manoeuvre the pallet into position. You can then break the pallet down (immediately if need be) and cart the bags to more convenient locations around the garden.
Most expensive option is buying individual bags from the garden centre.
Now my garden is up and running I have 4 large composting bins which produce sufficient compost for all border planting and for about two thirds of the annual mulching. Every other year I buy a cubic metre dumpy bag (about £80) of additional mulching material.
For sowing and pots I just buy a couple of bags of multi-purpose compost from the garden centre (don't do baskets or use many pots - too much watering!).
I couldn't get the compost I like for seed sowing in bulk, so have to buy bags. IPSec do make enough rough compost for the garden.
I dont buy plants, so I don’t mind spending the money on good compost.