The Cost of Compost

As the weather warms up a little more each day now, it is time to start thinking about patio containers, troughs, and hanging baskets. The Supermarkets are stuffed to the door with all kinds of gardening utensils, gadgets, sprays, and fertilisers, not to mention every conceivable type of potting compost known to man.

To add insult to injury they now have topsoil in a bag, about three shovels full, and they are asking three Irish pounds for it. (5 U.S.Dollars) That would make a ton in my estimation about one hundred and fifty Irish pounds. So a lorry load of topsoil which on average is about twenty tons would cost Three thousand pounds.

Are gardeners been ripped of or not?

I know that people living in towns may have difficulty getting topsoil, but charging £1 per shovelful is taking things a little too far.

It is not only the topsoil that is expensive; take hanging basket compost, patio container compost, bedding plant compost - there is a different compost for everything that they can think of, and it is all only peat-based with a little fertiliser and lime added as required. So why is it so expensive?

A three hundred litre bale of moss peat is £8-50 (eight pounds and fifty pence, Irish) About fourteen U.S.Dollars. A ten litre bag of potting compost costs around three Irish pounds, (just over five U.S. Dollars.) So a three hundred-litre bag of moss peat would make up thirty of these, realising a total of 90 Irish pounds, (150 U.S.Dollars.) Surely the cost of the fertiliser and packaging does not cost around eighty pounds.

If gardeners had the sense to buy the large bags of moss peat and the fertiliser separate, and mix it themselves; they could save a small fortune, and have more money to spend on plants, the sole purpose of the exercise in the first place.

As I have said before most these composts are all the same with a little variation in the fertiliser, and if you buy slow release fertiliser and follow the instructions it is difficult to make a mistake. Slow release fertiliser will not burn the roots like the powder form so it is much easier to use.

To make another point from what I can see most of the small bags of compost do not contain slow release fertiliser, so you will have to start feeding in about six weeks after planting.

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