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Compost in bulk

joepatrjoepatr Posts: 23
in Tools and techniques
I’ve got a cause to buy a lot of topsoil and compost for my garden (just moved house and re-doing the garden) yet one thing I can’t work out is why it seems so much more expensive to buy those big hessian bags that they crane in to your garden cost so much more than buying individual bags from shops. 

Am I perhaps looking at the wrong shops to buy compost in bulk (perhaps
someone could recommend one) I’d just have thought that buying in bulk would be a lot cheaper? 

Posts

  • TheveggardenerTheveggardener Posts: 1,057
    Joepatr, not sure it could be something to do with the delivery charge and use of the crane to move it. It would cost me more than £25 to have one delivered and for that I could buy three or four more 125 ltr bags of the same compost I would have to go back two or three times depending one how might I wanted. I suppose what I'm really saying it you have to pay for convenience. 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    " I’d just have thought that buying in bulk would be a lot cheaper?  "

    It is, generally. Look for a local firm, not a national outfit.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    We get ours delivered by the local council recycler - but it just comes in a heap - no hessian bags involved, and no crane, just a truck that tilts and dumps.

    it took a bit of detective work the first time to find out who the right person was to talk to at the waste company.....but now we’ve got her details its easy 😀
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    edited July 2019
    I had 25 ton of topsoil from CPA Horticulture - very nice stuff, the consistency of flour or fine sand and no stones at all. It is however quite sterile and I found needs to be mixed with manure or similar to get some life into it. It could also do with some grit added too.
    This is the stuff I got
    https://www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk/topsoil/landscape-20

    PS - I had a loose load delivered and it cost £525 (from memory) that was 4 years ago

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I asked our council but they said they’d had so many complaints about weeds, knotweed etc that they won’t let the public have it anymore. They only use it on their own municipal gardens. 
    I can understand that because I used to put all my weeds in there rather than on my own compost heap, 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Mine from the council has a lot of plastic in it. I don't get it any more.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    It is definitely the delivery charges which get you whether it be loose, in 1T bags or pallets of standard bags, so if you need a lot, look at your options there first.  I tend to buy standard sized bagged stuff in bulk from builders merchants as it is easier to move around and store after delivery.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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