"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I am about to put a small wall down the left hand side of my garden
about 0.5 meters from my neighbour's fence. I want to partialy fill
the area with some soil but what should I use? Is it ok to get some
bags of general compost from B&Q and dump them between the wall and
the fence?

Thanks
Andy

The standard compost is usually peat based and very light - it can be hard
to water and a little insubstantial. I filleed a new isolated bed with spent
compost from tubs and grobags, plus fertiliser, and found it hard to keep
moist in the summer.

You can get bags of topsoil from HomeBase - although John Innes (JI) No.3 is
currently cheaper, which is a loam based compost.

This year I have been mixing a 50ltr (65ltr on offer sometimes) bag of
compost with a 25ltr bag of topsoil or JI No.3 (whichever is cheaper) to try
and achieve a potting compost for my patio tubs which is lighter (and
cheaper) than pure JI No.3 but which isn't so hard to wet again if it dries
out.

This seems to be working O.K. and a mixture of different bags may be best
for what you are intending to do.

If you fancy experimenting then you could try mixing up your own 'new soil'
e.g. from B&Q compost, JI No. 3 compost, 'soil improver' from the council
(made from the recycled green waste) and some horticultural grit to keep the
mixture open and allow drainage. Throw in a bit of mushroom compost to round
it off and you could have quite a nice bed. :-)

I am sure you can buy topsoil from nurseries etc. but I have no idea of the
price or of the minimum volume.

HTH
Dave R