Potting Compost Mixes

Congratulations on explaining each step so clearly, and with such good photos :o)

This is very interesting, thank you. I'll have 10 tonne please, lol. I was wondering if there was a cheaper way of buying grit, as opposed to the extortionate garden centre prices.

That was a very good blog.

Fascinating stuff, Bulbaholic, never made my own compost, but I have to say, I'm not impressed at all with the current multi purpose selection (since they stopped using peat in the mix, I guess). Can I ask why bonemeal? And could I use fish blood and bone instead?

Answeres so far; bulk bag from a builders merchant, one tonne, is the easiest of the cheaper ways, even cheaper is a truckload of loose grit from the nearest sand and gravel quarry. Don't buy from the garden centre anyway, the builders merchant is cheaper even for bags.
I use bonemeal because it is low in nitrogen. Nitrogen feeds the foliage of plants and I generally grow for flowers and rootstock (bulbs). Fish, blood and bone can be used but it is higher in nitrogen.

excellent blog Bulbaholic , im forever buying compost this could be well worth the effort.

Thanks Bulbaholic, thats a very interesting blog......and by far cheaper than buying in all the various needs of plants and bulbs. I always use our own leafmold and well rotted compost and with grit added for drainage.....Thankyou for the very detailed explaination....

Looks like I now have a new project.
Thanks for the info.

Really appreciated this.

Very interesting and informative Bulbaholic.

So professional! I can only clap in awe and look aghast at my own compost. But when I get into my new house I shall separate out the leaves and do it properly now that you have shown the way!

There's been a bit of a discussion about blood fish and bone that I wanted to comment on. I had assumed that the fish meant all the bones of the fish once people had finished eating them - but no apparently people actually catch fish just to put it into fertiliser which I find rather abhorrent.

I've this picture of people carefully saving their fish bones for sending to some plant or other for making fish, blood and bone, sorry, Sarah, gave me a good laugh anyway. I don't think catching fish and using them in fertiliser is any more abhorrent than catching and eating them, really - we need the fertiliser to grow our food and plants, and we need fish to eat as well - predators prey on smaller creatures, and we're the most efficient predators on the planet, after all, it's just nature, really, which is, as they say, red in tooth and claw.

Bamboo - slapped wrist :-)))).
But I don't agree with you, fish are sentinent beings and shouldn't be killed just for compost. In our local waters small fish are being dragged out for fertilisers and chicken feed. The sea birds like puffins are starving because their food supply has disapeared. Sorry, but I can't condone this.

Ah, well that changes the picture a bit then, for me anyway. Mea culpa, in that case, Bulbaholic. Why don't they just use the bits left over from processing fish then, there's plenty of that, think of all the filleted fish and fishfingers sold in the supermarkets, surely they could use those bones couldn't they? and the heads and gizzards etc.

Because fertilisers, in general, are the products of the large multi-nationals and there is no where near enough fish waste to fill their requirements. Hence, they trawle the sea beds and scoop up what they can to maximise their output and profits.

Well I guess that might be necessary, but what about responsible, ecological fishing, what happened to that? I dunno, wherever you look there's another can of worms, nothing's how it should be. sorry, feeling a bit down tonight anyway, think I'd better take meself off for quiet lie down;-)

Bamboo.....for me it's one of those things about getting older. We know more, realise more......understand implications of various acts more....and these days there seems to be many cans of worms.

There are so many things going to pot right now and generally I feel rather unable to do anything much about them, but in my garden I get back a little feeling of being able to make stuff a bit better.

I don't buy bird seed that has been grown using pesticides that kill starlings, I dont use blood fish and bone that depreciates the seas, I dont use artificial fertilisers and pesticides and I try to make sure that my garden is a haven for critters (even slugs which I hate with a passion!).

I can feel for Bamboo - it gets me down too - but making a little slice of heaven
makes me feel a bit better :-)

We try to do our little bit, Sarah, although I sometimes wonder if it is more about the 'feel good' factor than really saving the environment. If we all did our 'little bit' I am quite sure that there would be environmental benefit.
Every little bit helps said the old lady as she piddled in the sea!

My mother in law said something to me years ago that I've never forgotten - I was banging on about the environment and recycling, etc., getting depressed and saying I felt like someone who'd turned up after a huge volcanic eruption with a dustpan and brush, and she said think of Michelangelo - he made his statues a chip at a time - if we all make a few chips, then it gets done. And those words echo back to me time after time.

Mr Moonbulb, I have as you see found your blog, but what a dilemma. The very blood fish & bone you recommended on my 'question' now seems not such a good option as it involves the wanton killing of fish! Sometimes I wish I wasn't a sentient being! :-/

Actually, Ba, I don't use BFB but just bonemeal (the fish introduces more nitrogen than I want in my composts). I do agree that commercial BFB has specially caught fish in it but I am sure that the industry could just source fish scraps. However, the dillema then turn to fish or oil! Nothing is easy.

I have much to learn Mr M:-)

So do we all, B.
So much to learn, so little time!

Very helpful and imformative blog, as to the environmental issues they are all very confusing at the best of times and I guess I`d join with Bamboo`s mother-in-law...

Finally got back to the computer. I've been away for a week as daughter no 2 had a baby last week, a girl after two boys. I was with her throughout and even cut the cord. All very exciting.
Back to business, I've printed off the instructions above for making some potting compost but I have a couple of questions. I use my compost for seeds, potting on, flowers and vegetables and for pots of tender summer flowers as well as some large shrubs also in tubs. The shrubs need repotting this year. Do you vary the feed content of your compost and if so how? I like to be as organic as possible, have recently emptied one bin, sifted it all and filled three very large old compost bags. I'm sure I have enough that I won't need to buy any for a long time, hopefully never. I noticed your comment on using bonemeal, do you use blood fish and bone? I've always understood bonemeal to be especially good for root growth making it ideal I imagine for potting on and planting out. I would welcome your comments and experience please:-)

Welcome back, Blizzie, congratulations to your daughter and commiserations to her husband ;-))))))).
The seeds that I tend to grow can take a long time to germinate (even three years or more!) so I don't want seed compost with weed seeds in it. My own compost uses garden loam and this cannot be guaranteed weed free unless I sterilise it and - to be honest - I just cann't be bothered: so I buy seed compost.
Do I vary the compostition and feed content of the compost; yes? Depending on the requirement of the plant I might add more grit (or humus) and I might increase or decrease the amount of bonemeal. For example with lilies I might add some extra leafmould and a bit more bonemeal; for a high alpine saxifrage I might increase the grit and reduce the bonemeal.
Fish, Blood and Bone has a higher nitrogen content than plain Bonemeal; this gives a boost to leaf growth. This is what you want with cabbages etc but it would encourage bulbs and herbaceous plants to become lush and soft and this is not what I want. So no, I choose not to use FB&B.
The problem with compost heap 'soil' from my point of view is that I don't know how much nutrient there is in it. I would advise you to be careful about using it as a potting mix and make sure that you dilute it with plenty of garden soil. Again, it will be full of weed seeds.

thank you for your recent reply to my question on compost. i obtain the leaf mold fron a pile of leaves raked from a local golf course. i have spoken to the groundsman and he has no problem with me taking it. the heap has been used for years and, by cutting in to the side, i can get at material almost soil-like. in fact i have planted potatoes in bags using nothing but the riddled compost. do you have any tips on potatoes grown in bags? ps - in common with you i am an (mostly) ex mountaineer. is gardening a climbing substitue?

Hi Fraser, you have found a gold mine, value it!
Potato growing in bags - we tried it and found that we prefered growing in the ground.If you don't have the ground then bags are better than nothing at all, otherwise no.
Is gardening a climbing sustitute - no, it is a good excuse for not going climbing as you get older :-). In my life, alpine plants in the mountains and in the garden play an equally significant role.