I went to get another load of John Innes and multi-purpose stuff today...and was warned to expect a 40% increase next year. 10 bags and 3 multi-purpose mixer cost me over £60...and that is the trade price from my local nursery. Would have been over £80 at the garden centre. This year, I noticed a vast drop in quality (bye-bye Westland, Levingtons, J Arthur Bowyers, leaving me with just Clover John Innes (although fortunately also the cheapest, as well as the best). I need to source a good supply in tonne bags...but this is an enormous risk if the soil turns out to be shit. And I don't want anything resembling the 2 sorts of 'topsoil' commonly sold round my way (crap spent mushroom compost (laughingly referred to as 'black fen soil') or the stony, brownish 'loam'. And certainly not wanting to buy the soilless multi-purpose mixes which are only fit for a 3-4 month growing season. It is getting to be an issue, given the amount of soil I buy and use over a year (at least a coupla tonnes).
I am working up to the garden overhaul - a huge job which involves emptying all the raised beds of enormous roses, indigofera, clems, ferns, numerous woodies (salvias, fuchsias, parahebes, hardy geraniums...O, a long list, so that I can raise the soil levels and replant all the hoarded potted perennials. The only plants staying in pots will be those with their own storage systems (tubers, bulbs, taproot, corms)...or tiny auriculas, lewisias and sempervivums. Everything else has to go in the ground...somewhere. This is the part of gardening I hate. Dithering, faffing with too many varieties of single plants (so it always looks a fussy chaos). However, all the plants are full grown...so at least I won't be committing my other common crime - overstuffing and failing to allow for growth.
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perhaps even have flowers indoors in winter ?
