Author Topic: Compost £-s-d  (Read 6831 times)

picman

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Compost £-s-d
« on: February 10, 2019, 10:07:13 »
When you buy cornflakes , there's tiny print on the shelf says how much per 100gm ... so why not compost ... Offer in a 'garden centre ' ( department store , restaurant . book shop ) 2 x 60 Lt multipurpose £12.. 10p per Lt .. Just down the road ...Plant nursery ( and green grocers )  Offer 3x70 Lt (Erin) £11... 5p per Lt ...  Think some retailers see 'gardeners' as walking wallets .. 

ACE

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2019, 11:11:37 »
Because it is getting nearly impossible too just buy one bag at a time. You have to buy multiples to get it at what you think is a reasonable price. Three of us get together once a year at £12 a ton from the tip. They cannot sell it as compost, which is strange as it is the same rubbish they put into compost bags. Soil improver they call it, but with  varying degrees of sharp sand and your own garden compost you can make, seed, cutting, potting or just normal compost.

Obelixx

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2019, 11:41:44 »
 I try and wait till they have the BOGOF types of offer or half price or something and then we go and get 10 or 12 bags at a time.   Some for sowing and the multi-purpose for soil improving.   Haven't got enough of our own yet tho we do now have some 2 year old leaf mold and I haven't found sharp sand or perlite yet.
Obxx - Vendée France

Tee Gee

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2019, 14:22:07 »
My Compost order worked out at 6p per litre this year!

I had 6 x 75litre bags of Clover MP delivered for £27-30.

Which I seem to recall is around the same cost as last year!


But talking of increased prices I have noticed over the last few years how prices have escalated in the garden world.

I noticed in Kings catalogue that Tomatoes varied from around 1p per seed to 14p per seed.

My favourite Br Sprout (Maximus) worked out at around 7p per seed whereas non-hybrid seeds cost around ¼p per seed meaning my seeds are 30 times more expensive than run of the mill open-pollinated varieties.

Caulies were similarly priced with my favourite costing 2.75p per seed when open-pollinated varieties are costing ¼p per seed!

What started to gall me since the arrival of Aldi & Lidl where my wife can often come home with a beautiful caulie for under 60p. The beauty of these was we can get them all the year round whereas my F1's all tend to mature within a 1-2 week period.

OK there is the satisfaction of growing them but having said that; I am finding that the quality and taste of these Caulies & Sprouts are equally as good as those that I grow so why do I bother?


What frightens me most is this "Brexit" thing and how all the scaremongers are saying there are going to be shortages and increases in prices...Why?...  the producers of such things from all over the world will still want to sell their goods to wholesalers, but as always they will be ground into submission by the large food chains, and it these 'middlemen' who in my opinion, will try to rip us off under the camouflage of 'Brexit.


I can remember way back when I was a  lad that potatoes doubled in price because of a shortage and the prices were deemed to be a 'temporary measure' but let me tell you the price never come down again.

Then we went to decimal currency (another rip off) how long did it take for an item that let's say was costing a shilling (twelve pennies') which overnight become 5 pence, then shortly after items that cost a tanner (six pennies) soon cost 5 pence!

Going metric was rather similar but took quite a long time to fully implement!

OK I'll end my rant there and for once I hope to be proved wrong.....but I won't hold my breath!




Tiny Clanger

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2019, 14:34:09 »
I am a notorious "shopper around" for compost. By good quality at the best price I can get for "important" crop seeds, and "3 for a tenner" from ASDA  to start lettuce etc in trays. The cheap one works reasonably well
I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

ancellsfarmer

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2019, 18:35:17 »
I try and wait till they have the BOGOF types of offer or half price or something and then we go and get 10 or 12 bags at a time.   Some for sowing and the multi-purpose for soil improving.   Haven't got enough of our own yet tho we do now have some 2 year old leaf mold and I haven't found sharp sand or perlite yet.

Castorama do "sable-a-enduire", which I think is sharp sand (its for rendering)
See:
https://www.castorama.fr/sable-a-enduire-35kg/8437011742919_CAFR.prd?rrec=true#icamp=recs

and
See:
http://www.francehydroponique.com/substrats/perlite/?setlang=en
« Last Edit: February 10, 2019, 18:39:40 by ancellsfarmer »
Freelance cultivator qualified within the University of Life.

ACE

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2019, 19:26:16 »
Washed beach sand works well for me and a bucket load costs nothing. Sometimes it is left by the road side in handy size sacks after a flood.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2019, 19:28:39 by ACE »

Obelixx

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2019, 19:54:08 »
Only 20kms from the Atlantic coast so maybe we can follow Ace's suggestion.   Have only seen builders' sand at the local builders' merchants but I can always ask.   Thanks AFarmer.   Our neaerst Castoramas are all at least an hour's drive away.
Obxx - Vendée France

Digeroo

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2019, 21:47:08 »
As far as I am aware taking sand from a beach is illegal.

Sea weed is better.  I  rung up a local authority who were clearing a beach of the winters sea weed and they were only too delighted for some to disappear as it costs them a lot to remove each year.  The smell in the car was terrible!! but my asparagus loved it.

I use half and half compost and recycled stuff.  I have found 100 % recycled is not good it is dries out.  It also adds nutrients to the otherwise poor boughten compost.  Beans and courgettes particularly like the  mix. 

Obelixx

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2019, 08:19:50 »
I thought it was pebbles and gravel that was illegal.  In any case, no seaweed here that I've seen.  It all seems to get scrubbed away by the tides and currents.   Would be lovely to have some tho.
Obxx - Vendée France

ACE

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2019, 09:11:57 »
Taking the odd bucket of sand is acceptable down here, taking a trailer load would get you into trouble. Loose seaweed free for the taking, but not if it is attached to the rocks etc. We have areas where it is troublesome and when they take it out for disposal you can fill a lorry with blessings from the council who have the cost of removing it. There are some places that have samphire where it is taken alive, but nobody seems to worry and it grows back very quickly. My inherited bed of asparagus was really in need of digging out and starting again because of the couch grass, but I gave it a last chance with a good mulching of fresh seaweed. As asparagus is salt tolerant and couch is not, I am hoping that the salt in the fresh seaweed  has thinned the grass. I have also ran an old mower over a heap of seaweed to chop it up fine and added it to the compost heap.

Beersmith

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2019, 14:33:28 »

What frightens me most is this "Brexit" thing and how all the scaremongers are saying there are going to be shortages and increases in prices.


That is not the scenario that frightens me most.  On the contrary, I think there will still be lots of countries more than happy to sell us their products. Shortages? I don't see it.

What frightens me is the other side of the coin, that our manufacturers and farmers will face high tarrifs when trying to sell abroad, especially to the EU. If our products are too expensive and do not sell, order books will shrink rapidly and businesses will shrink too, sacking employees, or collapsing altogether. Some businesses have already moved their HQ abroad (Dyson and Rees Mogg to name but two) so will no longer pay UK corporation tax.

Of course we can sell to other countries, and do so successfully I am sure, but it will be a big adjustment and may take a long time. While that is going on, we might end up with a deep recession, job losses, unemployment and all the other miseries that hit the ordinary man in the street. I desperately hope it doesn't happen, and I will be delighted if I am proved wrong,  but I fear that short term we may be in for a very unhappy time.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

Plot 18

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2019, 15:30:53 »
Quote
Some businesses have already moved their HQ abroad (Dyson and Rees Mogg to name but two)

That's Fake News!
What RM's company have done is set up a new business investment fund for Ireland. They haven’t moved their HQ or any other existing business there.




Beersmith

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2019, 17:17:30 »
Quote
Some businesses have already moved their HQ abroad (Dyson and Rees Mogg to name but two)

That's Fake News!
What RM's company have done is set up a new business investment fund for Ireland. They haven’t moved their HQ or any other existing business there.

I stand corrected.

However, I would ask why the need for the new business?  The FT reports this as a move to ensure asset managers do not find themselves cut off from European investors after Brexit. So clearly they are concerned about that issue and have taken steps to protect their business interests, which they are fully entitled to do. Hardly  inspires confidence for the rest of us though!
Not mad, just out to mulch!

Plot 18

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2019, 17:39:37 »
That's a fair comment that I couldn't object to :wave:
I'll just ask, if you were a partner in an investment fund wouldn't you think it a sensible move to prepare for all Brexit outcomes?

Now I'll get back to sorting the seeds in my seed box  :toothy10:

Beersmith

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2019, 18:02:25 »
That's a fair comment that I couldn't object to :wave:
I'll just ask, if you were a partner in an investment fund wouldn't you think it a sensible move to prepare for all Brexit outcomes?

Now I'll get back to sorting the seeds in my seed box  :toothy10:

Indeed. Your comments were entirely reasonable. I suppose I was in a glass half empty mood.
Like many businesses, I'm hoping for the best, but rather fearful about how it will all pan out.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

Obelixx

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2019, 20:01:47 »
I know of one small bulb company in Lincolnshire that fears it will go out of business because 50% of its sales are exports to the EU.  A friend in Belgium buys 2000 snowdrops in the green from them every year to build up a huge display in their 2.5 acre garden and is afraid they won't be able to continue ordering if Brexit leads to closed borders for plants or excessive tariffs.

It doesn't matter who wants to sell to the UK and vice versa.  If WTO rules come in and there are delays on checking goods thru Customs then perishables will become a non viable import/export.  If WTO tariffs put prices up going either way then sales of everything will suffer, inflation will outrun wages and jobs will be lost.

Bloody Dyson can take his bloody vacuum cleaner manufacturing where he likes.  Never buying one of his again.  Horrible, stupid bloody machines.   
Obxx - Vendée France

Beersmith

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #17 on: February 12, 2019, 10:06:53 »

It doesn't matter who wants to sell to the UK and vice versa.  If WTO rules come in and there are delays on checking goods thru Customs then perishables will become a non viable import/export.

If WTO tariffs put prices up going either way then sales of everything will suffer, inflation will outrun wages and jobs will be lost.


You make two interesting comments.

 I disagree with the first. I can wander around any supermarket and see loads of perishables, such as fruit and veg from places like Peru, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, New Zealand, etc  all traded into the EU area without any undue customs delay.

I totally agree with the second.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

Plot 18

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #18 on: February 12, 2019, 11:02:02 »
Will any of this affect the price of compost, though?  :argue: :argue:  :toothy9:

Obelixx

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Re: Compost £-s-d
« Reply #19 on: February 12, 2019, 12:39:58 »
Beersmith - those perishables from the rest of the world enter unchecked on EU rules negotiated on behalf of and agreed across the whole EU. 

Once Britain is out of the EU, WTO rules will apply to everything that comes into the UK by air or sea.  That means checks and delays and tariffs and price hikes.
Obxx - Vendée France

 

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