I've still got three quarters of a bag of organic peat free hoover droppings that I bought when there was nothing else. I don't even want to use it as a mulch as it looks awful. And seems to absorb the moisture from below rather than hold it in.
I had a bad batch of compost, where when watered it floated and only slowly drained.
Ahh yes, particularly Grosure MPC, the compost you can reliably use to waterproof your garden. The rain just runs straight off it. Clever stuff, they should sell it for damp proof coursing .
Lockdown really has exposed the terrible compost out there when you're forced to buy the only stuff available.
Last autumn I dug up and potted on about 15 hazelnuts from our tree that looked like sprouting. I thought maybe 5 would make it through winter. Together with the ones I didn't see in the borders, I now have about 20 3-4 ft tall hazel saplings. Will be 10 ft trees in two years. I should just bin most of them but, but, they're native and healthy and really quite nice plants that even grow in dry shade.
Biggest mistake....trying to do my bit and raise plants in New Horizon peat-free compost. Nothing grew properly in it...salad leaves, tomatoes, annual seedings, all just sat and sulked... Switched back to Jack's Magic and MPC with JI and watched stuff romp away....won't be experimenting with peat-free again! Should really have learned my lesson last year from the disaster that was the use of peat-free grow pellets....and home-made newspaper pots......
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I think garden centres should have an open bag so you could cop a feel.
But then they'd probably be left with the hoover droppings.
Lockdown really has exposed the terrible compost out there when you're forced to buy the only stuff available.