I always think Gardeners’ World reviews are useless with almost every product they look at scoring in the range 14 to 19/20. Particularly bad was their Readers’ Edition of the magazine in which they invited 10 readers to review trowels, giving them a trowel apiece. How can you possibly draw conclusions from that?
I'm not sure I agree. If you buy the same wine from different harvests, it will be different in taste.
Different in taste is fine as long as it's drinkable! But if I buy a case, I expect all the bottles in it to be the same.
I don't mind that compost isn't consistent between brands or even from year to year, but I'd like it to be at least similar from one bag to the next when I buy several of the same stuff at the same time. And I'd like it not to have bits of glass, plastic, wire etc in it, or un-composted wood or bark.
I think most gardeners are convinced now that peat-free is the way to go, or would be if the product were more consistent across the board without having to go looking for a particular brand, and it's time for Gardeners' World to focus more on the manufacturers and what they should or could be doing better.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
The garden Which reviews that are very thorough, show that just because one brand is good one time it might not the next season, or even product to product. A well known brand endorsed by RHS, got great results for it's mcp for potting and growing on, but it's seed sowing blend came out very poorly. I think they are struggling to find consistency in the raw materials and this has a big impact on the final product.
The garden Which reviews that are very thorough, show that just because one brand is good one time it might not the next season, or even product to product. A well known brand endorsed by RHS, got great results for it's mcp for potting and growing on, but it's seed sowing blend came out very poorly. I think they are struggling to find consistency in the raw materials and this has a big impact on the final product.
Trouble is, the batch that's on sale by the time the review is published might not be the same as the batch that Which? used for the tests.
My guess is that the manufacturers don't always let the raw materials rot down
for long enough (and variability in the raw materials might mean some batches need longer than others), resulting in there sometimes being recognisable lumps of woodchip and bark in the compost. So it's a new learning curve with pretty much every bag.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border