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Bagged composted mushroom compost in Essex?

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by Pete8, Oct 4, 2017.

  1. Loofah

    Loofah Admin Staff Member

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    Yikes, that's ridiculous. Did the delivery arrive OK?
     
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    • shiney

      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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      I just make my own compost (open compost heaps). All green waste goes on heap (weeds into green waste bin), mixed with lots of leaves. I don't have a shredder so woody stuff goes on the bonfire. I add well rotted horse manure (free, as long as I collect it) and ash to the compost heaps. Instead of the normal turning of the heaps by fork, mine have the rotavator run through them every so often.

      This is one of our heaps which was only started three months earlier and had nothing added for a month. It had just been rotavated (in May) and will be spread this month (has rotted nicely since then).

      P1330556.JPG
       
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      • Pete8

        Pete8 Gardener

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        Yes Andy, the delivery did arrive yesterday - at 9:40am....
        36 75L bags each weighing about 1cwt! The guy at CPA did say it's heavy and claggy. Heavy certainly, but no way is it claggy - the black compost just falls apart
        I barrowed them down the garden and spread 3 bags by dusk.
        Lovely stuff! Obviously very well rotted with a sweet 'country' smell, and not a single wood shaving to be seen!
        Most importantly, I can still move today :) I was dreading doing my back in as usually happens this time of year, but so far so good.
        Annoyingly I've got other chores to do this morning, but will get back to diggin and spreadin this afternoon.

        Lovely stuff you've got there shiney - I've got nearly 1cu m from one of my bins this year. And both bins are full again already, so I'll buy an extension to give me 3 bins.

        My beloved pooch has ruined my lawn, so I'm widening flower borders (to about 10-12ft deep!) hence the need for plenty of muck, and I've removed a load of old shrubs from another border and the 'soil' is just roots and dust even 1ft down - just like sand- I didn't see a single worm or any creepy crawlies, so that area's going to need a double mulch - and hope for some rain, which is quite rare round here.

        Thanks for all the ideas!
        Pete
         
      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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        Hi Pete,

        I'm not all that far from you, so know the problem with lack of rain.

        You may be interested that we open our garden for charity each year for the end of May Bank Holiday. We get some GC members coming (some come hundreds of miles) and lots of the public have it as an annual event in their diaries. This year we had over 500 people turn up in the day and a half we open. We have loads of plants for sale (sell well over a thousand) and now have non-stop entertainment as well. A good day out. :blue thumb:

        Here's a link to the preview that I posted on here nine years ago

        Sneak Preview of shiney's Open Day

        There's a lot of banter, as usual, on there and even more on the links for other years. Those are here:-
        Events
         
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        • Verdun

          Verdun Passionate gardener

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          Shiney, would love to see your garden. Sounds fantastic :)
           
        • shiney

          shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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          @Verdun Thanks. :blue thumb: I don't think it's anywhere near as good as what I've seen of yours. :noidea: We are mostly shrubs, trees, perennials etc.

          We'd love for you to come and join us. @Zigs and @ARMANDII come down each year and stay at B&Bs (as do a few others) and others just pop down for the day. It's great fun and I have a table in the garden set aside just for GC.

          Back to compost:-
          We seem to be getting some more losses in the garden and this Cistus appears to have kicked the bucket as well :cry3:
          P1330645.JPG

          So we shall be removing it and putting it on the bonfire (too woody for composting). The Euphorbia behind was cut down to the ground a couple of months ago and has sprouted like mad. Once again, we didn't put it on the compost heap as the stems were leaking loads of sap and we weren't sure about it.
           
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          • Verdun

            Verdun Passionate gardener

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            You do SCALE Shiney and do it so well ....can never aspire to the sheer sizes of your plants :)
             
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            • shiney

              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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              In our household that translates as 'we leave things until they get too big for us' :lunapic 130165696578242 5: A major part of our philosophy. :heehee:
               
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              • Pete8

                Pete8 Gardener

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                Your garden looks gorgeous shiney.
                I've got friends in Ridge which is about an hour away from here, so not that far.
                What a shame about your cistus - it's stunning - at least you can enjoy deciding what showstopper to put in its place
                 
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                • shiney

                  shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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                  We're only about half that distance from you (25 miles) :thumbsup:

                  I normally post the invitation here on GC around January/February :blue thumb:
                   
                • Pete8

                  Pete8 Gardener

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