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Would you buy "green waste"?

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  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    Thanks for all your comments. knowing what weeds I put in my green waste I'm very dubious about buying in. And as tigerburnie says, I've found odd, non-organic bits in peat free compost.
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    If you mean "Green Waste" which comes from local council's collection from their residents, I'd be a tads careful.  When I've peeped into the green waste containers at my local recycling centre, I have seen all sorts of non green stuff in there.  
    I assume that it is at least screened to eliminate as much as possible before being treated but much like some of the other composts/soil you buy from commercial suppliers, there are plenty of "bits" to be found. 
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I might just have been lucky, but I've used several tonne bags of composted green waste in this garden with no problem of imported weeds.  The garden was desperately in need of organic matter, having been neglected for 17 years or more, and this was the only source I could find of bulky organics.  There were a few small bits & pieces of plastic and the odd piece of glass to remove, but who hasn't found plant labels, teaspoons and secateurs in their own garden compost? 
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • I'll admit that on one occasion I used some of this green waste on the garden, and everywhere my wife had carefully planted her favourite flowers, we had tomato plants come up.
    So it wasn't a complete failure. We had a huge tomato glut that year.
     B) 
  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,511
    I buy the local council's 'soil improver' as they call it.  It's good and I use it for pots, tomatoes and even seeds.  I usually add grit but for tomatoes I use like growbags.  It's cleaner than my own compost and better made because higher temperatures are reached.  They charge £12 for 5 large bags, recently gone up from £10. I'm sure the quality varies from council to council; guess I'm lucky it's a good eco product here.
    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    I’ve used it for years. Very good value, the temperature gets high enough to kill off any nasties.
    Many peat free composts do contain green waste, but then so do peat containing composts.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    Hmm. At £95 for 0.9m3 delivered, I will have to think about it.
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    Wow! That's almost the same as I pay for mushroom compost! (£109.50 / cubic metre, delivered)
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    At that price no, but I buy several tons per year of our councils compost and it's fine, It's generally not quite finished cooking when I get it so I wouldn't use it for seedlings but as a bulk additive it does very well, yes there can be bits of plastic in it, and I've also found marbles etc. but you get what you pay for and since I need about 7-8 ton per year.. the price is important!
  • tigerburnietigerburnie Posts: 131
    It's not the stuff you can see that's the bits to be concerned about, I'm making my own compost from now on, all of it.
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