The message
from Inge Jones contains these words:

Well I'm not going to have a compost heap of my own and the neighbours
don't either as that would take up about 20% of the planting area, so
what's the best easily-available bagged stuff to spread each year?

Mushroom compost? (Try yellow pages under mushroom producers). Or,
your local council may sell compost it makes from green-waste
collections.

Janet

In article ,
says...

Mushroom compost? (Try yellow pages under mushroom producers). Or,
your local council may sell compost it makes from green-waste
collections.

Janet

I was thinking more of one of the brands you can get from a garden
centre. I'm not exactly what you could call an "enthusiast" am I?

I mean I know I could just potter round and put something in my trolley,
but it's really hard to get any advice when you're at the garden centre,
so I though if I was forearmed it would be better.

I'm getting the impression that the dedicated gardeners on this ng
aren't in the habit of picking up the odd bag of compost at their local
Wyevale though.. (-:

Inge Jones wrote in news:MPG.1ad32da496a865ba98a026
@text.giganews.com:


I mean I know I could just potter round and put something in my trolley,
but it's really hard to get any advice when you're at the garden centre,
so I though if I was forearmed it would be better.


I think you are looking for something that says 'soil conditioner' on the
bag, rather than 'potting compost'. I think I've even seen spend mushroom
compost in some garden centres.

Having said that, your garden won't care - the idea is just to bump up the
organic matter a bit and stick on a layer of something to make life a bit
harder for the weed seedlings, so almost anything in the 'compost' line
will do the job.

If the garden is that small, steer away from the bags of manure, because
that does pong for several days, and will also be a bit strong applied to a
small area. You can get smaller pots of pelleted manure - many plants will
really appreciate a sprinkling of that with the mulch, but if in doubt,
post your plants here and then we can tell you if they are hungry feeders
or not.

Victoria

In article ,
says...

I think you are looking for something that says 'soil conditioner' on the
bag, rather than 'potting compost'. I think I've even seen spend mushroom
compost in some garden centres.

Having said that, your garden won't care - the idea is just to bump up the
organic matter a bit and stick on a layer of something to make life a bit
harder for the weed seedlings, so almost anything in the 'compost' line
will do the job.

If the garden is that small, steer away from the bags of manure, because
that does pong for several days, and will also be a bit strong applied to a
small area. You can get smaller pots of pelleted manure - many plants will
really appreciate a sprinkling of that with the mulch, but if in doubt,
post your plants here and then we can tell you if they are hungry feeders
or not.

Victoria


Thanks Victoria! Hehe I did actually buy several bags of manure when we
were getting it ready for planting. When we inherited the garden it had
a shed on slabs across the entire lower third, concrete on the upper
third, and an impacted lawn that only grew in patches for the middle
bit.

When we pulled down the shed and lifted the slabs, there was loads of
sand and grit everywhere, with clay several inches down. So where we
wanted to plant we dug in a load of bagged farmyard manure, as it seemed
the quickest way to get some nutrition and fibre into the soil. The
plants seem to be doing ok, just coming into their first full year, but
my goodness it whiffed! )-:

Can I fill my empty fern-bed-to-be with soil conditioner, or isn't that
enough on its own?

--
http://www.simlogical.com
Behaviour modified objects for behaviour modification

Thank you all for your contrubutions.

I think I am going to spread the compost on my strawberries but keep it away
from the lettuces. What's left over i'll use as a basis for my own compost
heap.

Thanks again

Jo

The message
from Janet Baraclough.. contains
these words:

The message
from Inge Jones contains these words:

Well I'm not going to have a compost heap of my own and the neighbours
don't either as that would take up about 20% of the planting area, so
what's the best easily-available bagged stuff to spread each year?

Mushroom compost? (Try yellow pages under mushroom producers). Or,
your local council may sell compost it makes from green-waste
collections.

Janet

Our council gives away the resulting compost from the local cemetary.
All the flowers, leaves and grass cuttings etc. The amazing thing
is...... wont even consider delivery untill it`s a 10 ton load. Thats a
considerable amount of compost!!!

They do say its given away as soil improver and not compost tho.

"Jo Hall" wrote in message
...
Hello

I am a novice gardener and I have recently been some very
helpful advice
from the members of this group regarding starting a
vegetable patch.

I have now dug my patch and planted my first batch of
lettuces and
strawberries. However, my questions relates to compost.
My neighbour has
kindly donated a bucket of homemade compost and I am not
sure what to do
with it. All the books I have read on the subject have
advised to mix the
compost with the soil before planting. I have already
planted so can I just
spread the compost on the surface of the soil? Would that
benefit the
plants at all?

I always put my compost only on the surface as a mulch. The
worms are happier at digging it in than I am.

Franz

"Inge Jones" wrote in message
. ..
In article

,
says...

If you plan on making your own compost pile you can use
the bucket as a
starter. If not then yes you can spread the compost
like you would mulch.
The nutrients will leach into the ground and be taken up
by the plants. If
you bag your grass cuttings you can use that as well
which will retain
moisture. In the fall the layer of mulch can be turned
into the soil. I
think of it as a continuous composting operation. Once
every two weeks I
spread a little 10-10-10 on the surface of the
"composting mulch" to assist
the process.

How do people stop the level of their soil rising too much
if they keep
adding these mulches? Is there somewhere you can dispose
of the old
stuff?

Don't worry, the level will not rise noticeably in your
lifetime.
Generally speaking, the insoluble remnants are microscopic
and simply fills interstices between the mineral particles
in the soil.

Franz

"Inge Jones" wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
says...

The last thing you want to do is dispose of precious
old stuff! It's
black gold.

Mulched soil doesn't "rise up too much". As the mulch
material
decomposes it shrinks; worms drag it down, eat digest
and expell it, and
ultimately, plants feed on the broken down components. I
often pile on
mulch at least 6 inches thick on the soil surface; by
the end of a
growing season it will have completely disappeared, the
soil is at much
the same level as it was before mulching...but much
richer.

Think about it; mulch becomes the humus in soil. Plants
are built from
what they extract from the humus. Left to their own
devices, they
ultimately return to the soil when they die, to become
humus in their
turn. When we pull out, or prune plants, we're
interrupting that cycle
of soil-replenishment and taking something away. In
other words, beds
that are continually cropped, whose soil is not
replenished with
soil-building material, gradually shrinks.

Janet.

Yes that makes sense. Thing is I've got such a tiny
garden that when we
bought some manure and soil improver last year before
planting, it all
heaped up several inches! The fact we'd just dug it all
didn'thelp,
because that always puffs it out a bit too.

Well I'm not going to have a compost heap of my own and
the neighbours
don't either as that would take up about 20% of the
planting area, so
what's the best easily-available bagged stuff to spread
each year?

Contact your local authority and ask them if they operate a
composting system for vegetable household refuse. More and
more are now doing it as part of an enlightened recycling
programme.

Or, try and locate a mushroom farm near you. Many of them
sell bagged spent mushroom compost quite cheaply. The stuff
has a lovely earthy smell, and often you are rewarded with a
crop of some mushrooms as well.

Franz

"Inge Jones" wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
says...

Mushroom compost? (Try yellow pages under mushroom
producers). Or,
your local council may sell compost it makes from
green-waste
collections.

Janet

I was thinking more of one of the brands you can get from
a garden
centre. I'm not exactly what you could call an
"enthusiast" am I?

I mean I know I could just potter round and put something
in my trolley,
but it's really hard to get any advice when you're at the
garden centre,
so I though if I was forearmed it would be better.

I'm getting the impression that the dedicated gardeners on
this ng
aren't in the habit of picking up the odd bag of compost
at their local
Wyevale though.. (-:

The word "compost" as applied to the peat + fertiliser +
lime which you buy at garden centres does not mean the same
thing as the same word applied to compost made from
greenstuff which grew a year or two ago.

The garden centre stuff is for using neat as a planting
medium. The other is a soil imptoving agent and fertiliser.

Franz

In article ,
says...
The stuff
has a lovely earthy smell, and often you are rewarded with a
crop of some mushrooms as well.

Just what we want lol! Thanks (-:

In article , Inge Jones
writes
Can I fill my empty fern-bed-to-be with soil conditioner, or isn't that
enough on its own?

Ferns aren't greedy feeders. If it were me, I would fill the fern bed
with a bark based peat free soilless compost, like New Horizon.

That said, most of our fern beds were created from up-side down lawn
turves - it was what we had available at the time!

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm