wrote in message
...
On Fri, 13 May 2005 22:28:02 GMT, "peterlsutton"
wrote:




I live near South West Manchester. Could anyone advise me on how and
where to get grit and how much it costs?

I believe that the best is agricultural grit which is fairly small and
very
sharp. But it is not so easy to get hold of in bulk. I have a clay
garden
and I have purchased 10 mil gravel from a builders merchant. They usually
stock 10 and 20 mil gravel. You could also use sharp sand, but sometimes
it
contains some salt. I am also told that sharp sand tends to clog a bit
more
because the particles are all a similar size. I bought a 1 ton bag of 10
mil gravel a couple of months ago and it cost about £34 delivered (a
couple
of miles).

Loads of any organic material is good. I recently spoke to someone at
Harlow Carr RHS garden, who said it did not really matter if old compost
or
leaves were properly composted or not. You need to add lots of bits to
make
drainage channels and to break up the clay. Also organic material
combines
with the clay to increase the clay particle size in addition to any
nutrition it provides. It is of course the tiny clay particle size that
causes all the problems.

Peter

Thank you for so much help.

It looks as though compost is the best bet. I have three composters
and until last year used to compost everything. But then we lost the
habit while we were having a new kitchen put in and we never got the
habit back. I'll use some old compost and be on the look out for
mushroom compost in bulk.

Thanks again.

BTW I have grown giant decorative dahlias for over 30 years. I didn't
realise that until recently.

One word of caution about mushroom compost - I bought some five or six years
ago and had a nightmare of chickweed seedlings everywhere I used it!

Neil.