What should I fill my containers with?

[lucym]

Right, I'm very confused, and the more I read, the more confused I get.

I've got a small raised bed and liner , and I want to grow in it a variety of veg: baby carrots, french beans, peas, brocolli, tomatoes, lettuce, baby sweetcorn, shallots, spring onions, some companion plants and herbs...ok, I doubt I'll fit all that in there, but that's what I'm thinking about.

I was going to go along square foot gardening principles - I've got the book - but the suggested mix is equal parts of peat, vermiculite and mixed compost. I don't particularly want to use peat , and vermiculite is very expensive - I could easily see it costing £30 or so just to fill this small bed (115 litres) with this mix. So I've been looking around this site and elsewhere for alternatives, but everything I read seems to suggest something different and now I'm confused.

All I want to do is be reasonably successful in growing a few bits of veg with my five year old - I'm not looking to feed my family for a season, earn a living or win the village show, incredibly high yield is not my priority...but obviously I want to avoid abject failure. Can anybody help?

Thanks,

Lucy

NB I've never been on a forum that limited smilie use before! Want to use the eek smilie at this point but I'm up to my limit, lol...

[WiZeR]

It is perfectly ok to just use a multi purpose compost. Organic if you like. Maybe give it a feed of chicken manure pellets. That'll do, everything will grow, no problems.

[WiZeR]

PS: I used multi-purpose compost from all over the place last year, B&Q, Focus, Garden Centres, The Allotment shop, etc. All fine.

[Two_Sheds]

Don't worry too much! Like the others say, use multi-purpose. Try to avoid peat-based - you'll have to carefully check the labels.
I have never used vermiculite (for drainage in containers I put some broken up polystyrene in the bottom).
Have you started a compost bin yet? When that's rotted you can put that in your beds too.
Enjoy!

[nick the grief]

Vermiculite hold water as well as providing drainage. As to peat, it's probably not as bad for the enviroment as Coir as thats shipped half way round the world ! You can get peat that is extracted from the water courses in the north of england but thats expensive as well and composted bark might be too coarse.

[rustylady]

Multipurpose compost is fine. Make sure you have drainage. A sometimes cheaper alternative is supermarket growbags at around 99p each.

[Two_Sheds]

As to peat, it's probably not as bad for the enviroment as Coir as thats shipped half way round the world !

I don't often disagree with you, but coir (coconut) is replaceable; peat bogs are not. Once they're gone, they're gone, and all their wildlife with them.

[nick the grief]

I don't disagree with you either 2sheds. It's just that people think that Coir is "green" when it isn't really.

There is nothing wrong with using reclaimed peat like Moorland gold and in any case I would probably use it to start off then switch to leaf mould which is a much better product any way plus it's free

[pigletwillie]

I will side to a certain extent with Nick on this one. Whilst peat isnt sustainable, neither is the shipping of coir 12000 miles to fill your raised bed with. Reclaimed peat is sustainable and ecologically sound.

Is shipping in coir any different to shipping in beans, something that is now thankfully starting to be frowned upon?

Surely the greenest option is to buy compost from the local council, after all its your local green waste being recycled and only has to travel a few miles from its original collection to filling your beds.

As Nick says though, get your compost and leafmould bins into action. No miles at all there.

[mazel-bee]

I think if you are just doing it to get your son interested in where his food comes from and to savour some home grown flavours you can't go too far wrong with that selection. As long as your bed does not dry up you will be surprised how well you do. I hope you enjoy the season and get a fulfilling crop. Best of luck

[Benacre]

I always use John Innes no 1 to 4 but I now have so much compost on my old heap on my lottie that I will use all that in my containers.

[serenity]

my local B&Q were selling off some bags of organic compost, were £3.95 reduced to £2. I bought 4 to add to my new beds. Didn't think the cars suspension would take any more

[Egluntine]

What is reclaimed peat?

[lucym]

OK thank you, that's all very useful!

Compost bin: yes we have one, got it years ago from the council but not really been using it recently, I had a quick peek and it seems that my dad (who can only look at a neglected garden for about 24 hours before his fingers start twitching, and I've been a bit pre-occupied growing babies rather than plants) has emptied it and spread the contents around our borders. Which is cool, but means I'm now starting from ground zero. Anyway, been looking at the gardenorganic site, and am following their instructions. Question: it says no cooked stuff - why not? What's wrong with adding leftover rice or plain steamed veg or oven chips - it's all just plant material? With one picky eater and one messy baby, we often have leftovers. And what about rotten crab apples?

Leaf mould: will have to wait until autumn.

This year, we'll go with bought compost - I've got some pelleted chicken manure as well, and some liquid feed for later on. But was really interested to read about the Moorland Gold, we don't live that far from Huddersfield, I'm sure I'll be wandering down that way at some point... Don't think Leeds council sells compost yet, unfortunately.

I'm looking at buying a water butt and probably a dripper kit to cover my back when I'm busy exam marking in the summer (ex-teacher here) - we've no garden tap and our water is metered. Trying to decide if we can get away with a 100l slimline version (it's not exactly the world's biggest garden), or if this will prove to be a mistake in the long run...

Egluntine - reclaimed peat: as I understand it, when water flows through peat bogs, it picks up peat particles, and if you filter the water downstream you can collect or 'relaim' the peat. So it's peat which isn't dug up from precious peat bogs, so it's not damaging them.

Lucy