It's really worth doing - esp when neighbours come together to make it work. I benefit and so does everyone else.
It's also easy when the truck turns up exactly when it is supposed to, phones ahead to let you know it's on the way, and delivers the right order, with no fuss. No snow or rain really helped too.
I put down some alfalfa an pellets and bonemeal before putting down manure. It will be interesting to see if the roses bound up, as I didn't do much for them last year. Fingers crossed for some sun.
The media worked out about at £50 a tonne for me, (£3.5 per 50 litres very roughly) which makes it very worth doing, even with all the work of hauling about (which I didn't personally do).
I put down some alfalfa an pellets and bonemeal before putting down manure. It will be interesting to see if the roses bound up, as I didn't do much for them last year. Fingers crossed for some sun.
Mental note for me to remember to do that next winter! I spent ages mulching this winter, now spending ages again feeding hedges and roses, trying to fork all the feed under the mulch...
It's now been a month since the bulk delivery. What are my impressions now?
The process worked ok, but the question is really about the quality of substrates we bought and now to know in advance, if you haven't bought that product form that supplier before.
'Compost' medium is such a huge umbrella term that doesn't tell you much about what you will receive, the ingredients used to make it, where it was made or by whom. So variable. In this case, I don't know if Thompsons mixed it up themselves or bought it off site. Our tonne has gravel in it and is dry (not at all 'juicy'). It doesn't hold liquid well but is more like a mix you would use for a free draining planter. There was no rubbish in it (plastic, wire, foil etc), and it is uniform. Pretty fine for me as a potting mix but I think some neighbours were disappointed at the quality - not what they were expecting. If you clench a fistful, it doesn't hold together at all. None bought more than 100 ltrs, but still, it gives food for thought.
The 'manure' tonne had some similar issues. It isn't really 'manure' it's horse bedding, so looks like half-decomposed straw without lumps, slightly whiffy still. Again, I'm personally fine with that as a mulch for roses and shrubs, but I don't think neighbours would look at the medium and think 'manure'. It's not the dark, crumbly chocolate cake that you might buy in manure packets from some suppliers. I do think it's slightly cheeky to sell straw bedding under the straight heading of 'manure'.
Would I use Thompsons again for these purposes? I'm not sure. I've used them before for gravel in various local gardens, and it's been great because they are a reliable company who turn up on time, communicate, good pricing and gravel is a more standard product - so you know pretty much what you are getting. I really don't want to be buying endless bags of plastic, shipping in from all over the country, so loose, local provision is a good option on paper. I'm trying to minimise and rationalise inputs and outputs to the garden and help the neighbourhood to do that do - or at least offer some options.
So, on balance, the buying of substrate remains a bit of an open question - as it is for most of us.
@Fire If you live near Enfield, private message me, and I'll let you know details about membership of our allotments. Having a plot is not required, but it will give you access to fresh manure and bark chippings. It will be much cheaper than Thompson's, but you would have to bag it up yourself, and wait for it to breakdown to lovely, brown soil. Membership is a couple of quid per year.
The manure that we have delivered to the site is always full of straw, but the quantity varies. It helps break down soil texture, so most of us don't mind that it's part of the mix.
That's really interesting. It seems to come down to a supplier you know but there's always a first order.....
Kind of, but if you are buying loose "from the farm" as it were, there might always be a variation in manure mix or compost ingredients. Even "industrial" suppliers often get a lot of variance in their 50 ltr bag contents and I think local farms would too. Compost, perhaps by its very nature, uses up what we have to hand - that's what makes it a cheap-ish, viable resource, using up waste products.
As noted elsewhere, the compost/manure/substrate is essentially always free or almost free. What we are paying for - from Wickes or Melcourt or anywhere else, is the labour, packing, petrol, storage, tax, driving costs etc.
"The story of buying substrate is the story of transport".
@Fire If you live near Enfield, private message me, and I'll let you know details about membership of our allotments. Having a plot is not required, but it will give you access to fresh manure and bark chippings.
That's very kind
@KeenOnGreen - One of main issues is that I don't have a car or a license or much space to store fresh manure in a small terrace garden. So delivery is super helpful.
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The manure that we have delivered to the site is always full of straw, but the quantity varies. It helps break down soil texture, so most of us don't mind that it's part of the mix.