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Compost

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Posts

  • Any compost is better than peat free. Too many woody bits plus no body to the compost at all. I've tried 3 different makes and certainly wouldn't buy it again.
  • Steve: Happened to me once, using a bag of V**** seed compost from B&*. Killed everything it touched. Tasted salty.

    With a bit of cement, it would have been better for repointing my gable end.

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    image

    I have to admit, I've never actually tasted my compost. image  Of either kind.

    Having said that, Geoffrey Smith used to say that well-made garden compost was good enough to eat in sandwiches!

    What happened, Jen?  Did you complain?

  • Took the half-empty bag back for a refund. Plus one post-apocalypse tray of death. Customer service took my word on the salty taste bit, gave me a funny look, but were very co-operative.

    They were seedlings, so I didn't lose much, other than time. My own fault, really.

    This happened before I got into home composting in a serious way.

  • Council made compost 

    I would never use it as I will not trust what checking process it has  gone through and could contain seedlings of mare tail or hog weed 

    Hi Grace

    When  you say you have composted your grass cutting, I take it that this has been mixed with other compost material to create a good mixture. I take it, from your comments, that it if smells sweet so that gives me the impression that you have. Grass cutting composted on there own smell qunite the obvious 

    Happy Gardening 

  • @greenfingers: I completely agree. Council compost is also very likely to contain residuals that you would NOT want to put on your veg beds, for example.

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    I've had that problem too image

  • Much better buying a quality compost like John Innes for any planting and sowing into pots and trays the home made and council is called green compost and some pro gardeners don't rate it its ok to use for mulching and as soil conditioner.

  • Steve 309Steve 309 Posts: 2,753

    "Garden compost (a version of which comes from the council recycling centre) can be a component of potting compost but doesn't have the right composition/nutrient balance/drainage & water-holding qualities etc. required of a good growing medium by itself.

    There are all sorts of recipes for making potting compost from various proportions of soil, loam, garden compost, leafmould, peat, sand, grit, gravel, perlite, vermiculite, and various fertilisers. "  (This includes those developed by the John Innes Institute, which are soil based.)

    ...as above

  • @Edd

    Seems you need to leave a blank line above your link URL text. Then drag over the text to select it and hit the 'insert link' button. It is so 1990s it needs fixing.

    I've also noticed the spell checker only likes American English, but that might just be Chrome, I dunno. This site wants a kick up the a**e.

     

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