Kitchen Garden Forum

I have mentioned before about the difficulty experienced in our area in finding someone to deliver bulk manure.

Recently I found a potential source, not of straight manure but, of a blended compost manure. Today I had 10 cu mts delivered to the plot.
10cu mtrs much more than I need but already other plot holders are offering to buy any I don't use.

Buying loose bulk makes it sound an expensive outlay but it works out a lot cheaper than buying bulk bagged product which, subject to supplier, appears to contain anything between 700 to 1000 litres and cost anything between £75 > £120 per bag online.
Lorry load I had delivered cost me £200 + delivery.

The company concerned will deliver within approximately 35 miles of their Woking, Surrey depot as standard. They also supply other composted topsoil products, see http://www.thecompostcentre.co.uk

Turned up on time and I can't recommend the quality of the product highly enough.

wow... Impressive... I'd like to see them deliver to my plot though, since its down 2 flights of stairs just to get the the entrance, with no car access lol

I think we all have difficulty if finding suppliers of manure that will deliver Par Snip. I am on the constant look out. Finding stables that have transport is the problem. We are fortunate to have one that also needs his lorry for his business. A 3 ton load rotted which is as near as I can judge the same as in your photos is £30 delivered. The lorry looks to be about the same size. We can also have a tractor trailer load fresh for £15 delivered.

Our local council will deliver a lorry load of their compost for a similar price I think to what you have paid; might be worth looking into in your area but it doesn't put the bulk back into the soil like manure does and soon needs topping up.

Most stables will let you collect your own if you bag it up.

Don't give up the search I am sure there is lots of it out there if only we can
find it.

Beryl.

Hi Beryl
Berkshire is like horse riding mecca, we have riding schools, Polo stables and livery stables all over the place. Despite that none want to deliver.

The lorry load I had delivered is 10 cu mtr and roughly about 7.5 tonnes.
It is 100% organic, weed free. And contained no rubbish of a type that often gets thrown on manure heaps such as baling twine and worn out brushes.

As you can see it is well broken down and is ready for use. No need to wait for straw to break down.

Other option around here is go bag it and collect it yourself.

You are lucky to be able to get it delivered, and so cheaply, but I expect there will be a number of people up and down the country who get it much cheaper than I have paid. Bet it is nowhere near as broken down though.

Hi Par Snip,
Yes, I do agree with you it does look very good stuff. I am sorry if I was being too critical but really just agreeing how difficult it is to obtain good manure delivered. I am sure when spread on your beds it will give very good results.

Kind Regards
Beryl.

Hi Beryl

I didn't think you were being too critical. I did however think we were talking about two different types of product and product comparison alone was not my objective when starting the thread.

In any case your input is appreciated, without replies this board would soon be lost.

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If anybody has a recommendation for a good supplier of products we may be interested in please let us know. I appreciate that is some instances, like the compost supplier above, the area served may be limited.

Its not just about price it's about quality and service as well.

I can reccomend the most wonderful supplier of gardening tips, humour and thoughtful advice.....and that my dear fellow, just happens to be you.

lol OH you smooth talker you, Made me laugh


Cheques in the post

Oh Pa!

Now I have compost envy!

We get fresh horse manure delivered to the plot but full of blue gloves & stuff & takes another couple of years to be usable. When I took on plot had a milk farm that delivered a load of well rotted manure but everyone has found it now & it is not old now.

Think your suppliers delivery charges might make it a wee bit over budget.

Westi

our local stables delivers fresh heaps twice a week for free onto a communal area, we all then barrow it away onto our own plots to leave to rot down. Better than nothing! If yo are lucky, soemtimes it gets left for a while, and if you dig down you can find partially broken down stuff, that doesn't need as long before you can use it.

That looks like goodly stuff Pa Snip

Wow. That looks a very impressive heap. I am green with envy. I can see Mrs Snip and Daughter Snip are going to be very busy shovelling,, barrowing and digging in this weekend before all the midnight fairies on your allotment start magically spiriting it away!

I think we should all turn up at Pa Snip's shed on Saturday for an egg and black pudding breakfast with our wheelbarrows

Primrose

There's plenty of parking space on site. I'll nip out tomorrow and buy a bigger frying pan.

Daughter and son in law been helping this afternoon, moved quite a bit around plot. Also got some stored at back of plot in what would normally be compost bins. for future use.

Still a fair bit to shift which I hope to achieve Friday. Couple of other plot holders want 20 barrow loads each as well. One other plot has already had 10 barrow loads

Manure distributed to some points on the plot. Tell you what, it was damn hot below the surface, in places it was white hot just like charcoals on a BBQ

Haven't quite finished shifting the composted manure around yet, getting delayed by number of people who stop to admire it, I wouldn't have thought there could be that much interest in a good composted manure. Another load of the composted manure was delivered on Monday of last week, split between 3 other plot holders.

Anyway, moving on, today I had two 1cu mt bags of topsoil (approx. 1 metric tonne per bag) delivered from the same company. Yet again delivered on time as promised, quality service and certainly a quality product.

Gosh that looks good stuff. Not a stone in sight.
But are you now going to build some steps up to the top of the boxes to access the soil when it eventually needs to be dug?

Spot on Primrose, it is a really well screened drop of stuff.

As for digging, tested prior to build and a hand fork or spade with a good handle on gets as deep as you need.
With our raised beds we have found that the soil/compost mix we have made in the past doesn't compact that hard..

I'll be helping to soften the ground up anyway, the larger bed is where my ashes will end up.