Author Topic: Gardening Materials and Covid  (Read 2722 times)

Tee Gee

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Gardening Materials and Covid
« on: January 25, 2022, 15:15:31 »
Over the last couple of years, when I hear people talking about the problems Covid and the lockdowns have created, I have always replied that the worst is still to come!

My thoughts were.....these costs will have to be paid for!!!!

From experience, I have always known that successive governments and commerce often use a disaster or national crisis to sweep some unsavoury problem/s (such as raising prices) under the carpet and blame it on the current problem/s

Looks like that I am being proven correct!

Last week I went to purchase a few seeds and compost, and I was amazed at how things have increased in price, for example;

Multi-purpose compost from my usual source had risen approximately 30% in price and on looking around I noticed that other necessities such as fertilsers etc had risen by a similar amount.

Then I had a look at mail order plants and here some prices had risen to spectacular levels, needless to say I didn't buy any plants, I now plan on growing these from seed this year!

Luckily I am now making my own compost so this morning I worked out roughly what my compost was costing me and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is costing me around 3½ p per litre whereas my source was charging £8 for 70 litres of multi-purpose compost (11.43 p /litre)

Incidently I am making my own compost to the John Innes recipe so 3½p/litre for Ji N°2 is a great saving, add to that, I have the option of making any of the Ji recipes (Ji1/2/3/seed) which makes my saving even greater.

Plus, if I say so myself, the quality is excellent!

To do this, I have been saving the used compost from my containers over the last two years and recycling it, where I sieve out any old detritus from the spent compost before rejuvenating it with Ji Base mix.

At the same time, I check the pH to ensure it is OK, I also add a little Perlite to improve/open up the texture.

I currently have a stock of around 1000 litres of used/spent compost stored in Daleks & Dusbins. I mix this with some new fibrous compost at a ratio of 3 parts spent compost to one part new compost, then I add the fertiliser/Perlite & Lime as required!.

I am also finding that making my own compost is quite therapeutic,  so I think I have created a "Win Win" situation for myself during these troubled times! :icon_cheers:


Obelixx

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2022, 16:09:29 »
Some of those price rise swill be Brexit related, not Covid.  Lots of the bog standard plant plugs, annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees are raised in bulk in highly mechanised Dutch and Belgian greenhouses on an industrial scale and with clever heating and lighting systems to increase output and reduce  costs.  Any that now come to the UK have to include the costs of phyto sanitary certificates, import licenses, increased fuel and transport costs and so on.

British growers just aren't geared up for those economies of scale and also have increased fuel and transport costs.

Even here, half way down the Atlantic coast, plants are already more expensive than I was used to in Belgium and they don't have the varieties I want so I now grow most of my veg and perennials and some shrubs from seed.

I don't know much about composts as there seems to be no standard formulation here but £8 for 70 litres seems cheap to me.   Usually about 13€ for 60 or 70 litre bags tho I do usually find BOGOF and 3 for 2 offers in February.   I asked for a compost sieve for Xmas as it seems to be increasingly lumpy.   We use our home-made composts as soil improvers.
Obxx - Vendée France

Tee Gee

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2022, 16:45:28 »
Quote
Some of those price rises will be Brexit related

I agree this will be part of the increase, but I think the retailers here in the UK have lost a lot of trade due to Covid lockdowns, and now I guess they are trying to recoup some of their losses.

Obelixx

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2022, 21:01:26 »
Maybe but their fuel and commodity prices have gone up too and not all got support during Covid thanks to holes in govt furlough systems.  They're also likely to have to pay their staff more to keep them.
Obxx - Vendée France

gray1720

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2022, 21:04:47 »
I don't know how much nurseries relied on casual staff, but all those dreadful Eastern Europeans have gone home, and suddenly there's a shortage of people to do all the jobs that they used to do, who would have forecast that?
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

Obelixx

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2022, 22:39:55 »
Anyone with any sense!

What's so dreadful about eastern Europeans?  At least they were willing to work in nurseries and fields doing jobs the Brits won't touch.
Obxx - Vendée France

gray1720

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2022, 20:23:04 »
Well, I was being sarcastic, but maybe I should have added [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags?
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

saddad

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2022, 07:23:41 »
I can never find them (Sarcasm tags, not East Europeans) when I'm looking for them..

Beersmith

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2022, 12:05:04 »
Industrial production of fertilizer uses high levels of energy, this adds considerably to CO2 emissions, but given the current high cost of energy expect to see big price increases in things like ammonium nitrate and growmore.

But what is the betting that animal manure and blood fish and bone will rise in price too?  They will blame processing and transport costs obviously.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

Digeroo

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2022, 23:01:15 »
I bought some blood fish and bone in September and it was considerably more than I had paid previously.  £18.60 for 25 KG.  I think last time I got some it was £14 ish. 
We get free manure, so I am hoping to use more of that this year. And I am making more compost.  I also use a lot of stinging nettle and comfrey teas which are also free.   
I went to my local Dobbies garden centre, and the price of multi purpose compost was huge and the bags were all wet and dirty.
I am hoping Lidl and/or Aldi will have some soon.
2020 I did an experiment with Aldi compost against Hilliers which was x3 price wise.   I grew 10 courgettes seedlings 5 in each compost and there was no particular difference, all bonny plants.  The biggest and the smallest was in Aldi but the average size of the plants was very similar.  I preferred the texture of the Aldi.  The Hilliers was like the dirt from a vacuum cleaner bag. All 10 plants grew away well when planted out. 
I missed the Eastern Europeans who had the next allotment to me.  They grew amazing celeriac and bell peppers.  Their peppers dripped with fruit of every colour.     

Obelixx

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2022, 19:16:58 »
Is there a sarcy smiley Gray1720?

I have been nurturing a patch of comfrey and will be making comfrey tea with it and I still have nettle tea from last year.   I will probably still buy some pelleted chicken manure but we have 5 chooks and are composting their poo and straw which should help.

I'm waiting for the BOGO offers before I buy any compost.  Hope they come soon as I need quite a bit for pricking out and potting on.
Obxx - Vendée France

tricia

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2022, 21:32:37 »
I'm, hopefully, sorted for the coming season. Took delivery of 3 x 40l bags horse manure £10, 3 x50l bags Godwins multi purpose compost £10, 10l bag of Perlite £7.99 and a bag of sharp sand £2.99. Manure is for the courgettes and squashes, mpc to top up my raised beds and the Perlite and sharp sand will be mixed with my sieved garden compost for starting seeds.

Tricia  :wave:

Beersmith

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2022, 20:08:33 »
I'm seeing more and more cases where the offer at the DIY store or the garden centre is for 40 or 50 litre bags  rather than 70 litre.  Classic shrinkflation.
Not mad, just out to mulch!

gray1720

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2022, 21:04:47 »
Is there a sarcy smiley Gray1720?

I shall have to look for one - surely if there's a purple sperm, there should be a sarcy one?
(mind you, in the one place it would be handy, there's no aubergine emoji...)
My garden is smaller than your Rome, but my pilum is harder than your sternum!

saddad

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2022, 08:09:45 »
Recycling my old compost bags... filling and storing my own when I turn compost bins I have noticed "shrinkflation" some of the bags are 80 or 90L I even had one of 120L... not sure how I shifted that even 20 years ago. No doubt "Health and Safety" when you read the handling advice, presumably that's why potato nets are now 2, 1 1/2, or even 1kg. Now where did that smiley go???

Tee Gee

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Re: Gardening Materials and Covid
« Reply #15 on: February 01, 2022, 10:48:23 »
These are the compost prices we are being charged this year from our allotment store:

 

anything
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