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I have been buying a well known garden centers compost for many years but of late they have changed their compost to a darker material and it says on the bag that 75% is obtained from landfill.

my only concern about this is that people put feed and weed chemicals on their lawns and mow their lawns emptying the cuttings into their grey dustbins which go to landfill.

failure rates have never been so high in past years the new composts dont seem to be able to support the process of germinating seeds successufully.

Has anyone found this to be true themselves and what have you done differently.

This year i have put in 40 courgette seeds and they all failed.
so I thought I would try the wonder grow add water to dry block compost with wondergrow feed in it, I have too say with much more success than the garden centre landfill compost. looking at the texture of the wondergrow compost it looks much like crushed coconut shells.

regards N.

Just stick to kosher peat-based composts for seed-sowing in the future.For the finer seeds,I "dust" the surface wih a fine layer of vermiculite and for cuttings I mix in perlite.
Having said that I cannot see the the so-called selective weed-killers in very low concentrations affecting germination but maybe the co.experts on here might say differently.
I certainly would n't use use composts with sources such as you describe. I'm not an "eco-freak" and I believe Paracelsus'First Law of Toxicology but even so, personally ,I'd give these a miss.

Thanks Edward,

I don't know where wonder grow came from I meant Miracle-Gro compost.
so far so good courgette seeds are germinating fine I think I'll stick with buying Miracle-Gro every year now, besides this add water dry block with feed is much easier to carry home.

so now I'm stuck with 150ltrs of landfill produced compost for growing on. by the way it say's its ideal for seeding on the pack.


N.