My wife used some of our homemade compost one year, to put around some seedlings she planted out. In EVERY part of the garden she put her supposedly beautiful flowers, to provide colour, and attract pollinators, we had tomato plants grow.
I had no complaints, because we had a huge crop that year, but my wife was a bit miffed.
Glad the sweet peas are looking good @debs64. I often find them better in shadier spots because full sun can be far too much for them, even here - and we don't have the temps that they get further south. They don't dry out so quickly either, which is especially useful when they're in pots I'm sure your fiance was delighted with the manure right enough, but perhaps he'll enjoy the subsequent benefits of the sweet peas when they flower! Glad you're extending your garden with some more plants. That's what it's all about isn't it? Try something new, change things around. It's about getting a result which pleases us
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I bought Westland with John Innes this year. Awful stuff,I opened the bag to a load of germinating weeds on top, found several big stones and bits of wood and strings of plastic. Every year for the last few years it's been rubbish. Almost impossible to sow small seeds. I filled containers with it,and the top has formed a sort of "fluffy straw crust" on top?? What on earth are we being sold now?
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
I was chatting to a man up the road from me yesterday, who has a lovely display of dahlias, grown from seed, in his front garden each year. He was saying he can't get them to grow this year, and we had a chat about the problems with compost. He always uses the one I've always bought in the past - Jack's Magic, and I was saying that many people have found it poor this year. I'm also wondering if he had bought the peat free one without realising, which seems to be even worse. It was always an excellent, consistent product.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks for all your comments - most interesting. I note that others are saying that they get really poor germination which I totally agree with but I also find that even if the seeds do germinate, they don't grow on! I'm doing a trial of lettuce seeds in 3 different mixes - 2 different multi purpose peat free mixes and one that I have made from half sieved soil and half sieved home made compost. Nothing showing yet but only sowed a few days ago!
Just a follow up from my last post. The two photos attached show my experiment showing lettuce in different types of potting compost. From left to right in the photos - Godwin's peat free multi purpose, Levington peat free multi purpose and a mix of my own sieved compost and garden soil in equal parts. Whilst I admit that my compost has a lot of weed seeds in it, the results are interesting.
My own compost is weedy but they're my weeds and I can recognise them easily when they are very small and there's nothing pernicious. It has no plastic or bits of glass or stones . I am unlikely to buy any commercial compost next year.
Read an interesting bit of information when researching compost now the peat has been removed. Add one part of GC manure to 5 parts compost. Trying this out on my seedlings this year and seems to be working a treat. Also noted my local Aldi is selling bags of compost with seaweed but never tried it yet.
I mentioned this before but on a recent episode of Beechgrove garden their head gardener showed what they use. In each case , seed sowing, potting on etc, he used something , leafmould, sand, garden compost, or did something (like seiveing) to modify the bought compost. As many of us have said before, not everyone has the time, space or resources to do this. We have become used to just opening a bag of product and using it as is. I think we need to push the editors of the journals and magazine to highlight these issue and come up with some solid practical advice to help us all overcome these issues.
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I had no complaints, because we had a huge crop that year, but my wife was a bit miffed.
I'm sure your fiance was delighted with the manure right enough, but perhaps he'll enjoy the subsequent benefits of the sweet peas when they flower!
Glad you're extending your garden with some more plants. That's what it's all about isn't it? Try something new, change things around. It's about getting a result which pleases us
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Awful stuff,I opened the bag to a load of germinating weeds on top, found several big stones and bits of wood and strings of plastic. Every year for the last few years it's been rubbish. Almost impossible to sow small seeds. I filled containers with it,and the top has formed a sort of "fluffy straw crust" on top?? What on earth are we being sold now?
He always uses the one I've always bought in the past - Jack's Magic, and I was saying that many people have found it poor this year. I'm also wondering if he had bought the peat free one without realising, which seems to be even worse.
It was always an excellent, consistent product.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...