Easter is April the 9th this year. So it's quite a way off yet.
I went looking for some potting compost. It's not brilliant but it would suffice to get some seeds going and top up some plant pots. They didn't have any yet but at least I managed to purchase some Leeks seeds for seventy nine Cents.
It looks like I will have to go to my local builders providers and see if they have their usual 3 bales of potting compost for the price of two.
I wish I could make my own seed and potting compost like a John Innes number 3. Any one make their own compost? Most cheap composts are made from bark and peat and don't contain the vital nutrients that plants and newly emerged seedlings need to grow.
I have got three big compost bins and two little ones. I also rot down gathered leaves and grass clippings. John Innes may have his number 3 but I have got Yorkshire Pudding number 2 - smelly but rich in nutrients.
ReplyDeleteI have a very large pile of fym but it's still too fresh to use this year. We live five minutes drive from a little beach where I am allowed to gather seaweed. I feed the livestock grass and none poisonous weeds and I need to build some new compost heaps out of pallets stood on end.. I would like to find an inexpensive way of making potting compost . I can propagate plants for free by division and cuttings. It's the growing medium like potting compost that costs so much every year. YP number 2 sounds good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to look at the eggs if I can help it, it really annoys me to see them already. Just like Christmas stuff gets into the shops earlier and earlier each year.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the compost hunt.
Briony
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It is annoying to see them already Briony. Yet there are no seed potatoes or bags of compost yet. I have old gardening books with some John Innes compost recipes. I wish I could sterilise soil and kill of any weed seeds and use it for potting compost.
ReplyDeleteSterilizing isn't as complex as we might imagine - my bro made a sterilizer out of an old acetylene cylinder and some sort of pressure cooker thing to make the steam so that he could sterilize his compost to grow mushrooms. A bit of jiggery pokery and it was eventually well tuned and worked just fine. Would you like me to ask him to send over his plans?
DeleteYour brothers soil steriliser would make a good subject for your blog Tigger. It sounds great.
DeleteWe had a compost heap years ago when I had a big enough yard, it was just kitchen scraps with a bit of old pea straw mixed through and turned over now and again when I remembered, I believe there was also some soil mixed in and that's where I found the potato peelings growing one year and got a full bucket of spuds. My daughter has a compost tumbler but it's new and hasn't produced anything yet.
ReplyDeleteYes Tumblers are excellent for making compost River. I knew an allotment holder who grew potatoes from the eyes of his potato skin peelings.
ReplyDeleteWe have plenty of home-made compost that gets used in tubs for spuds, toms and pots of annuals, but I do buy seed compost. Lots of garden centres and stores selling it in this part of the world!
ReplyDeleteHi the veg artist. I wish I lived near a mushroom or strawberry farm and could avail of their spent compost. I don't go in garden centres much because I find them very expensive. Especially plants. I go round carboot sales and discount supermarkets and propagate what I can myself. The old estate gardeners use to use mole hill soil for potting compost.
ReplyDeleteOur city accepts garden and yard waste and then composts it and offers it for free. We used it once, but we had a very disappointing garden that year. In pondering it, when yard waste comes from all over, I'm going to bet that there are a number of people who use chemicals for various purposes. Now we make it a point of buying our compost from a company that trucks in mushroom mulch.
ReplyDeleteYes you never know what chemicals people use in their gardens. Some mushroom farms give spent compost for free.
DeleteWe don't have local mushroom farms in our area. Out east where my son lives, the Giorgio plant is there, and there are rows upon rows of concrete bunker type buildings that they grow mushrooms in.
DeleteThere are no mushroom farms near me either Debby. I believe strawberry farms are another source for cheap or free spent compost.
DeleteOn a related note, what has happened to JayCee?
ReplyDeleteI don't know Debby. I miss Jaycees post.
DeleteOh my oh my just look at those Easter eggs. Very tempting. Those shops do a steady run of celebration goodies. Mince pies, hot cross buns and Easter eggs. What comes next?
ReplyDeleteThe way are things are going Linda there will be Christmas stuff in the shops in July.
DeleteWe used to have about a cubic meter a year of compost (anything free and compostable went into that pallet thing). This year we are having to use the pile from the corner of the new allotment - it seems to be mostly soil and has a lot of nasty roots that need sifting out. We will give it a go as a seed raising mix in the absence of anything better.
ReplyDeleteI was sieving some old fym and soil the other day Tigger. It's a brilliant way of finding twitch grass and pulling it out.
ReplyDeleteSoil can easily be sterilised by using boiling water. If in doubt check with Google !
ReplyDeleteThanks Mel. I will Google it.
ReplyDelete