Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: blackberryjam on March 04, 2017, 20:51
-
Anyone tried Lidl compost is it any good .
thinking of buying some to build up my raised beds.
-
I don't know about the quality of either but Lidl is 99p for 20L whilst Homebase have 30L at £1.35.
-
And the B+Q Verve is £10 for 3 x 50litre bags, or they may be 60litre. Can the mathematicians work out the cheapest please. Plus we know the quality of that,
-
And the B+Q Verve is £10 for 3 x 50litre bags, or they may be 60litre. Can the mathematicians work out the cheapest please. Plus we know the quality of that,
B&Q comes in at about 6.66p per L based on 50L bags 5.55p per L for 60L bags
Lidl comes in at 4.95p per L
Homebase is 4.5 p per L
not maths arithmetic !!
some of the compost on sale down here is truly awful and it is not cheap full of un-composted wood chips and plant roots .
-
At the moment I've bought 3 x 50l. Bags of Verve for £10, which is the compost I've bought for years. Usually buy the 125l. Bale for £6.93, but can't manhandle it any more. Has anyone tried Asda compost? That seems a good buy.
-
Hi
I've just bought 2 ,125L verve from B&Q.
I was advised not to bother with the lidl compost , by fellow allotment owners that I happened to meet there .
Luckily they helped put the compost in the car and I used my wheel Barrow from car to plot.
Your right Oldgrunge, I would never been able to move it on my own ,they even warn you not to try on the pack 🌱🐝🍅
-
My only experience with lidl compost a few years back it looked like recycled garden waste and the seedlings and other plants grew very poorly if at all. The following year I saw it being sold as soil conditioner.
I've no idea what the compost they are selling now is like as my previous experience put me off.
An excellent shop in other respects though. :)
-
I haven't tried it recently, but when I did around 4 years ago it was terrible.
-
I bought a 40lt bag of organic vegetable compost from Aldi yesterday £2.49. Its quite good and ideal for growing veg and tatties in tubs and bags. I will buy a couple more this week for my tatties in bags.
-
We always buy verve 125 litres. Takes both of us to lift into the boot and then into the wheelbarrow
-
I buy Jacks Magic compost from B&M its £4.99 for 60 litres. :D
-
We always buy verve 125 litres. Takes both of us to lift into the boot and then into the wheelbarrow
I'm getting a bit older now, asked a rather strapping young lad at BnQ to put me two 125 ltr bales of Verve in the back of the car ..... finally a bit older and a bit wiser ;)
Carried them (one at a time) down to the greenhouse at home though :blush: well, maybe not quite as wise as I think :wacko:
Quite impressed with the Verve, mixed up a load of potting compost using the Verve, some coir (rehydrated from compressed block) and the compost from the Dalek, made a rather nice 'open' mix!
-
has anyone had problems with their verve?
i used to use verve until a couple of years ago when it was absolute garbage. tried a few different ones last year and couldn't get on with anything. now thinking i should go back to verve and hope i don't find a bad batch again.
-
Lidl is ok, to mix with something else, and so eke it out.
I get the lads at our local garden centre to lift bags for me, and when I get home, I have to open the bag in the boot, and take it down the garden by the bucket load until I can lift the rest of the sack out. Oh, what it is to be old and feeble :lol: :lol: :lol: Good luck with whatever you chose. Homebase sounds a good buy if you have got one near you. regards, Mrs Bouquet PS: Delivery from the garden centre about 1/2 mile away is £24 !!!!!!
-
i have tried the homebase own brand cheapest one, think it was in a white bag then, but the cheapest budget stuff about 4 years ago and it was horrendous. just fibrous material and twigs.
they may have changed since. try one bag and see before you buy shed loads.
when i had the issue with verve they did offer a refund so keep the receipt what ever you choose and send an e mail if it's no good. legally it has to be fit for purpose or they have to give you a refund.
-
I bought some grow bags from homebase, meant to be 30L and something like £1.32.
Noticed my local place has Clover compost back in stock, 4 x 60L for £12, so I'll prob use that. Works out a little bit more than the 125L from B&Q but has more advantages (they load car, lighter to carry through house, and with the closure of my closest B&Q the other place is nearer, smaller store, much quicker!)
Hannah :)
-
.
Up to a couple of years ago I used Wickes, then they went and destroyed it by putting woody rubbish in!
I never buy the cheapest compost, mid range, it is not a lot dearer, in the end and my seedlings and plants grow!
Hope this helps!
-
I bought quite a bit of the Homebase one last year - that was OK.
If you have a gardening club card for Wyevale, they often do deals on compost for club members. Its pretty good stuff. You get the odd twiggy bit, but all my seeds this year are in it and are coming up with no problems :)
-
.
Up to a couple of years ago I used Wickes, then they went and destroyed it by putting woody rubbish in!
Perhaps time to have another look? I've read good reviews about it this year :)
-
.
Up to a couple of years ago I used Wickes, then they went and destroyed it by putting woody rubbish in!
I never buy the cheapest compost, mid range, it is not a lot dearer, in the end and my seedlings and plants grow!
Hope this helps!
And that what counts , if the seeds and plants don't grow , it's a false economy.
Have been looking back in the 'archives' and the Verve subject seems to arise each year ,variable quality which suggests you take your chance.
I'm sure most of us have our own particular favourites that we are happy with.
-
if the seeds and plants don't grow , it's a false economy.
That's very true. I do buy the cheaper brands for some stuff - filling builders buckets for growing greenhouse toms in and the like. A bit of woody stuff doesn't bother them and they get fed regularly anyway.
Seeds and young plants - I'm a bit more picky. You have to factor the cost of seed failures into your calculations.
-
.
I never buy the cheapest compost, mid range, it is not a lot dearer, in the end and my seedlings and plants grow!
Hi again,
when I said seedlings, I mean ones that have been transplanted.
For actual seed sowing I make up a mixture of very finely riddled pure Westland peat and washed river sand at 8 parts peat to 1 of sand, this works well for me!
-
has anyone tried the J Arthur Bower's Multi-Purpose from homebase? it looks to be a similar price to verve, wondering if it's any more consistent than verve.
-
When the to lidl today I was going to buy a bag of their 99p compost just to see what it was like ,but they have sold out.
The verve I brought looks OK ,it's now dug into the raised beds along with a bag of farm yard manure looking good 🌱🐝🌻
-
I used to swear by J Athur Bowers, but for the last few years a local nursery supplied Sinclair 75 litre bags of potting and bedding ( green bag ) good price and performed very well.
This year I got bags from our local allotment society, 80 litre bags, good price ( they get 2 or 3 pallets ) from Keith Singleton horticulture West Cumbria, very impressed with the product so far, nice open texture, seedlings coming on well.
Also use verve 125litre bales and rehydrated coir block mixture as well, going to grow tomatoes in that this year, lot of experiments going on in the garden this year ;)
-
I also tried the Homebase stuff, about 4 years ago. Awful, and it had the consistency of mud. Just dug it into the garden.
-
Mrs Tenhens asked me how much 'multi purpose' we had earlier today, so a visit to the garden centre is on the cards. Will probably head to our local rather than the retail outlet at the top of this thread. The staff are good and will put the bags in the car , and are usually able to answer any questions we may have. Don't mind paying a bit more for good service.
-
I can not carry more than 40l so it limits what I can buy. I tend to buy the multi purpose from Cherry Lane Garden Centres as they do 5 bags for £10 and will load it into the car for me. So all I have to do is unload the other end. Not brilliant stuff but I use it more for a soil conditioner than anything else, although saying that, my peppers and tomatoes did really well last year in pots using it. I mix it with vermiculite for seed sowing. As I said, not the best but perfect for me.
-
I used to swear by J Athur Bowers,
J Arthur Bowers has gone out of business and other suppliers took over the remnants of the firm last year.