Garden And Gossip Forums

Where did he buy it, Spec??

He bought it at a store similar to B&M called Home Bargains, they had a smaller shop up until recently when they moved into an old Homebase site in Irvine, which gave them space for a garden centre, along with an increased store size apparently, not been in it yet but seem to be quite a good garden centre, my boy sent a photo of a bag but don't know how to download from my phone to tablet, but will get a photo next time I am up at his house
Its producer is GROWMOOR, and product name Grow+plus, seaweed enriched peat free compost, benefits =approx 60 trace elements, fungal & disease preventatives, improves soil consistency, increases water retention
As I said I haven't worked with it but it does look good compost
To add, its a 50lt. bag

Thank you.............twice.
I know Home Bargains - its where I buy cheap butter and dog biscuits. The one I go to doesn't have a garden centre though - just a few racks of plants.

https://www.growmoor.co.uk/MoreGro.php

The store has just moved into their new premises, and apparently their garden centre is very good, I might give it a try soon, and get some compost for myself, (though I will need to save up for that) as it really looks very good, clean compost, maybe worth while asking them if they could get you some bags

Veggie did you see their contact number, you can give them a call and get directions to your nearest suppliers

I was running short of compost so I nipped to the local Garden Centre and bought some levingtons peat free with added john innes in 50L bags. It doesn't seem too bad but the bags were very heavy and I found out why when using it. It seems to consist of almost 1/2 and 1/2 of compost and a flinty gravel. You wouldn't want it going anywhere near where you might want to grow carrots or parsnips ever.

(01-04-2022, 01:31 PM)Mark_Riga Wrote: [ -> ]I was running short of compost so I nipped to the local Garden Centre and bought some levingtons peat free with added john innes in 50L bags. It doesn't seem too bad but the bags were very heavy and I found out why when using it. It seems to consist of almost 1/2 and 1/2 of compost and a flinty gravel. You wouldn't want it going anywhere near where you might want to grow carrots or parsnips ever.

Is that the stuff in a red bag? If so I've got some of that too. It's a mix of composted bark, wood fibre, green waste compost and peat-free John Innes. I assume the gravel is from the John Innes. I've added perlite to lighten it up a bit, otherwise it's a bit claggy when wet. If you find bits of plastic in it (I've found quite a lot), keep the receipt, take a picture of it and the plastic, complain to 'lovethegarden.com' and they'll give you a refund. 

I found a plastic butterfly in the Lidl compost last year.

I sometimes think we get too 'hung up' on compost quality as basically its a bagged alternative to soil. I don't know about you but my seed bed outdoors hasn't been 'riddled' so that it is a uniform particle size. Seeds still germinate in it. To my mind it's the same with compost. I don't really care whether its uniform or has the odd bit of plastic or sticks and small stones in it. The organic content, whatever it may be, means that it has better water retention than basic soil and that's all that matters to me. 
As long as seeds have water, air and sometimes heat thats all they need to germinate.

Steps down off podium!

I hear ya Vinny, I do... but the difficulty comes when you buy 'compost' and it's just not broken down enough. If it's still rotting down, it robs the nitrogen out of the soil that the roots want to go into to find food, and there isn't any.

I don't mind bits, but I'm utterly gutted about the compost I bought first this year, that nothing wants to grow in. So much wasted time, and so much wasted seed.