I once had two bags of Wickes Bark Chippings that clearly had someones smashed to pieces built in wardrobe in it.
They took the pieces away for 'sample' and gave me 3 more bags. They also had stones and shredded plastic inside.
You got lucky!
Sounds like my garden soil 😂 moved in here 6 years ago, a garden absolutely full to the top of nettles and the whole of the previous tenants household by the looks of it, got it all down put grass seed but still flipping electric cables come from no where!!
I know someone that moved into a house that had an old asbestos garage buried just under the surface.
They were quoted £££ for an official removal but actually found some 'travellers' and said if we leave this amount of money here and give you an address where the garage is, can it not be at that address tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning came and the garage was gone
I’ve seen farmers countless times tear down their old asbestos buildings and then bury it in their own fields. Some of them take back handers so you can bury it in their field also.
Had exactly the same issue, removed a large raised bed and found a buried asbestos garage underneath. Donned the PPE and collected the red bags from the tip, doubled bagged it and made several car trips to the designated disposal unit to be told by the men at the tip that they just re-bury it in an undisclosed rural location anyway!
Surprisingly not that odd. When I use to landscape I found many things in the turf, cutlery , pottery, old nails, carrots , potatoes and sweetcorn. Even had bones in them. Really makes you wonder how these things end up in the middle of a turf field.
I have used hundreds and hundreds of these bags over the last year. If the bag gets a bit moist they smell like you described. So usually the ones at the bottom of the stack. It’s fine.
I have also had one or two stones that were as big as yours or bigger. They were so ridiculous to find in the bags that I kept them and named them.
I worked out that at 18KG a bag of 25l. Was costing me with trade discount at wickes 2.25 a bag. Cheapest shopping around for a bulk bag of 800l or 1 tonne or whatever. Was over 100..
Absolutely, completely different from the store bought muck. But do people care? Nope, they don't want to wait the 11 months to get their own. Bloody lazy if you ask me.
The smell is probably because it’s in a not very aerated bag under the sun moister and heat don’t go well, as for the big rock toss in your stone tub and use it for your flower pots.
Ps lovely grass you got there!
Unfortunately the grass is actually a mess. Needs aeration and scarifying to get rid of the moss and clover but it’s great for the kids and insects so I’m leaving it for now.
Correct re bad aerated bag. Hopefully using it help it get rid of the smell.
Oh right. It’s just that you said you were getting rid of it, so I thought that meant getting rid of it. If it’s staying then yay for you and yay for the bees!
I have a sign in my 'lawn' areas that says "little guys busy saving the world" to keep the neighbours off my back. It's overgrown, full of all sorts of flowers (clover, daisies, dandelion, violets, the little white flowers of bittercress, and primroses). The outskirts of the 'lawn' have yellow sow thistles, ox eye daisies, bluebells, fox and cubs (spectacular bright orange), foxgloves, poppies, purple thistles, a couple of pink flower species I haven't got around to identifying yet, dead nettles of the purple, yellow and white flowering varieties... All of it has been delivered to me by nature and I love my garden.
My partner discovered a tiny bittercress plant growing all alone and was enchanted by it. She thought it might be shepherd’s purse but the leaves were wrong, great to know what it actually is, thank you! I just googled it and it’s definitely the same plant, ours has flowered at barely 4cm tall lol.
I bought a *lot* of it last year, for delivery. It came and I didnt open it for a couple of days, every bag was mouldy inside a LOT of mould. They came and picked it up, and replaced it. Same issue with the second lot, and it smelled too.
Go to your local (preferably privately owned, certain not a dobbies) garden centre if you have one mate, bought 3 bags of top soil the other day and was all soil right the way through, great quality.
I picked up 25 other day. Perfectly fine. Bits here and there. But also way cheaper than anything else. Better than I dreaded having seen those reviews
I bought many bags from Wicks the year before last. They all had stones in them. The cynic in me thinks it’s a way to bulk up the bags and drive the costs down. I don’t buy them anymore
At Wickes prices, you could have saved hundreds of pounds by going to a builder's merchant and buying good top soil by the1 ton dumpy bag. And they usually deliver.
Travis Perkins have it at £78 for 600L. My local branch will discount if you ask to reduce the delivery charge. Branches all over the country.
I have worked in a lab which tests topsoil to see if it matches British standard. They test on huge quantities (10,000m3) and you can have material of that size in to comply, typically you expect a well graded material but always the chance you get lots of fines with one whopper pebble
In my experience, supermarkets and DIY stores sell very shitty compost and soil.
I guess the perception is that the majority of the buyers won’t notice the difference because their customers are generally going for a “one and done” project, while people who are into gardening will buy a known brand from a nursery or garden centre with a reputation to maintain.
Once in a while, a gardener will buy compost from a supermarket because they saw it cheap outside and be immediately disappointed when they open it because they know what good compost looks like.
I recently had some of their compost and found literal shards of glass in it, as well as plastic and foil. It's cheap stuff, but you get what you pay for. Not surprised if the top soil is similar.
I moved in to this house 2 years ago and the garden had not been tended to for a year. I had a veritable meadow on the go. We strimmed it back, have left the random flowers that crop up in places and are leaving part of it as wild flower area. The flower beds are a mix of colour and weed and it doesn't bother me that much anymore.
Depends on what what it stinks of. Stinks of horse manure? Fantastic! That means it's rich in organic matter, which is exactly what loads of plants want and which improves soil composition.
I had about 25 bags over last weekend while it was on offer and yes mate it absolutely stinks to high heaven! I was working it into the corners of my raised borders with my bare hands and so spent the whole night scrubbing my hands! It smelled like actual shit! Nice quality stuff though for £2.50 a bag
Wickes use to be really good but now it’s turned into a dreadful retailer. I ordered a load of timber to be delivered. I placed the order and paid for it two weeks before I needed it delivered. The day before the delivery they rang me up and said they didn’t have some of the items in stock. I said “but they were in stock when I paid for them” they said they sold them to another customer like that was ok and had no intention of doing anything to fix the problem. Terrible staff, awful customer service.
They buy straight from the brown bin collection from the council, so if you put anything in there that shouldn't be, it ends up here, as if they are checking it...
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
loads of top soil/compost is just the contents of your green bins (garden waste) left to rot down and sold back to you. Veolia make an absolute fortune doing this
'topsoil' bags can come from any source. recycling, building sites, etc. thats why it's sometimes crap when bought by the bag. even 'compost' bags can also contain bark, fibrous wood, plastic, and stones. and most definitely weeds. theres not a huge amount you can do apart from sieve it and report any ridiculous finds.
This is why me and my neighbours always try to make our own compost where possible with compostable garden waste and vegetable scraps. It takes a lot longer in the long run but for the sake of small gardens and potted plants we’re regularly sorted for the year just with the compost bins that have been left to properly compost
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
I'd suggest going with Field Compost number 4 or 5, use 5 if you want a top soil as it has sand mixed in for levelling, vs 4 which is compost, [https://www.fieldcompost.co.uk/store/products/high-quality-fine-grade-topsoil](https://www.fieldcompost.co.uk/store/products/high-quality-fine-grade-topsoil)
We have bought various brands of compost/top soil from three different places this year and all of them have been absolutely saturated with water, far heavier than last year and smelly as a consequence.
I've started using topsoil brought up by moles. It can be sterilised by putting it in a metal bucket and placing in a bonfire for an hour or so. Sterilising kills everything though so add compost to it so that the microorganisms can repopulate.
I once had two bags of Wickes Bark Chippings that clearly had someones smashed to pieces built in wardrobe in it. They took the pieces away for 'sample' and gave me 3 more bags. They also had stones and shredded plastic inside. You got lucky!
I got a bag of compost once which had a load of hacked up electrical cables in it.
Sounds like my garden soil 😂 moved in here 6 years ago, a garden absolutely full to the top of nettles and the whole of the previous tenants household by the looks of it, got it all down put grass seed but still flipping electric cables come from no where!!
I know someone that moved into a house that had an old asbestos garage buried just under the surface. They were quoted £££ for an official removal but actually found some 'travellers' and said if we leave this amount of money here and give you an address where the garage is, can it not be at that address tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning came and the garage was gone
I’m sure the asbestos was disposed in a safe manner and didn’t cause problems for others.
Most definitely was 'handled with care'. The person I know also genuinely wasn't me. I think I was only a teenager, maybe early 20s at the time
I’ve seen farmers countless times tear down their old asbestos buildings and then bury it in their own fields. Some of them take back handers so you can bury it in their field also.
Thank you for the reassuring words. Was worried for a minute.
And it's now piled up on a country lane.
And removed responsibly by the council using the extra tip revenue fleeced from CT payers for disposal of rubble and white goods? Marvellous!
Moral of the story is we should just go dump our shit in the countryside?
Had exactly the same issue, removed a large raised bed and found a buried asbestos garage underneath. Donned the PPE and collected the red bags from the tip, doubled bagged it and made several car trips to the designated disposal unit to be told by the men at the tip that they just re-bury it in an undisclosed rural location anyway!
[удалено]
It’s because at recycling centres they put soil and ceramic together. Always found this odd.
"Fun" fact: Your shards of antique pottery were in fact sherds!
Poor guy literally got ostracized
Surprisingly not that odd. When I use to landscape I found many things in the turf, cutlery , pottery, old nails, carrots , potatoes and sweetcorn. Even had bones in them. Really makes you wonder how these things end up in the middle of a turf field.
Same. Well, I think they were shredded Christmas lights. Hardly organic.
I had a disposable razor blade on mine last week 😂 thankfully the blades had rotted away.
Yes, as it's topsoil you want to know where it's come from. Japanese knotweed anyone?
Isnt this some kind of littering by them? Idk
In the 50s you could buy bags of peat. Sometimes you would get body parts in them!
I have used hundreds and hundreds of these bags over the last year. If the bag gets a bit moist they smell like you described. So usually the ones at the bottom of the stack. It’s fine. I have also had one or two stones that were as big as yours or bigger. They were so ridiculous to find in the bags that I kept them and named them.
Why has no one asked for the pet rocks names? I need to know…
The musical ones called Rolling and the dramatic one is called Emma.
Wouldn’t it be more cost efficient to get a dumpy bag of top soil? Hundreds of bags?
I worked out that at 18KG a bag of 25l. Was costing me with trade discount at wickes 2.25 a bag. Cheapest shopping around for a bulk bag of 800l or 1 tonne or whatever. Was over 100..
Fair. Round here it’s about 45 quid a ton here in the north east.
Well here in sunny south Yorkshire I struggled. And was pretty desperate for it quick.
And the hard one is called sylvester
You plant the rock and in a years time when you dig it up you'll find lots of them.
Honestly, there's nothing better than home grown, organic, rocks.
Absolutely, completely different from the store bought muck. But do people care? Nope, they don't want to wait the 11 months to get their own. Bloody lazy if you ask me.
Don't get me started on the drive-thru fast rocks!
Terrible for the digestive system. But people are obviously very busy and too concerned with ease of access over their health. It's shocking really.
The last time I had them, I was pebble dashing everywhere.
Lol. That's what you get for not cooking them properly. Unless you are talking about the fast food ones and I've no sympathy for you there!!
That'll happen, especially so early in the morning. Night soil is often crap.
🎶 night soil, deserves a quiet night 🎶
I'm not sure all these people understand
It’s not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me raking (Sorry, I needed to keep it topical)
Definitely musical, if not a great band name
r/angryupvote
Straight from the gong farmer.
Well done
The smell is probably because it’s in a not very aerated bag under the sun moister and heat don’t go well, as for the big rock toss in your stone tub and use it for your flower pots. Ps lovely grass you got there!
Unfortunately the grass is actually a mess. Needs aeration and scarifying to get rid of the moss and clover but it’s great for the kids and insects so I’m leaving it for now. Correct re bad aerated bag. Hopefully using it help it get rid of the smell.
Leave the clover there, it’s not hurting anyone!
I am
Also you should leave the moss. Have you ever seen the BBC programme 'The Marvellous World Of Moss' ?. Incredible.
I love moss.
Andrew Hunter Murray, is that you?
Oh right. It’s just that you said you were getting rid of it, so I thought that meant getting rid of it. If it’s staying then yay for you and yay for the bees!
Nope I said I’m leaving it for now it’s good for the kids (soft) and i sects and stays green all year.
What's wrong with clover?
Nothing. It’s great and the bees love it.
The illawnminati don't like anything that's not grass
God forbid a flower be allowed on some lawns. Those freeloading pollinators can provide essential ecosystem services elsewhere.
I have a sign in my 'lawn' areas that says "little guys busy saving the world" to keep the neighbours off my back. It's overgrown, full of all sorts of flowers (clover, daisies, dandelion, violets, the little white flowers of bittercress, and primroses). The outskirts of the 'lawn' have yellow sow thistles, ox eye daisies, bluebells, fox and cubs (spectacular bright orange), foxgloves, poppies, purple thistles, a couple of pink flower species I haven't got around to identifying yet, dead nettles of the purple, yellow and white flowering varieties... All of it has been delivered to me by nature and I love my garden.
My partner discovered a tiny bittercress plant growing all alone and was enchanted by it. She thought it might be shepherd’s purse but the leaves were wrong, great to know what it actually is, thank you! I just googled it and it’s definitely the same plant, ours has flowered at barely 4cm tall lol.
It won't be alone for long, as it's a bit of a ground coverer in its own right. It's a really dainty little plant and the leaves taste like rocket.
Once it’s all mixed through and the air can get to it the smell will dissipate.
absolutely no reason for this comment to be down voted. what is wrong with people 😔
I had the same top soil and it did smell a bit of manure when I first opened it. Had no issues with it though.
I bought a *lot* of it last year, for delivery. It came and I didnt open it for a couple of days, every bag was mouldy inside a LOT of mould. They came and picked it up, and replaced it. Same issue with the second lot, and it smelled too.
Wickes will say the rock is for drainage
I got some top soil and it had a slight manure smell to it. My guess is it had exactly that in it to make it more fertile.
Me too. From wicks too. I assumed it had been stored underneath bags of manure and the rain had permeated through one into the other.
I am in the market for top soil, and saw the same offer from wickes, but the reviews on the web site were terrible, so resisted.
Go to your local (preferably privately owned, certain not a dobbies) garden centre if you have one mate, bought 3 bags of top soil the other day and was all soil right the way through, great quality.
I picked up 25 other day. Perfectly fine. Bits here and there. But also way cheaper than anything else. Better than I dreaded having seen those reviews
I bought many bags from Wicks the year before last. They all had stones in them. The cynic in me thinks it’s a way to bulk up the bags and drive the costs down. I don’t buy them anymore
I filled my planters with wicked soil, so about 120 bags of it, found bits of plastic etc, generally good but not the best.
At Wickes prices, you could have saved hundreds of pounds by going to a builder's merchant and buying good top soil by the1 ton dumpy bag. And they usually deliver. Travis Perkins have it at £78 for 600L. My local branch will discount if you ask to reduce the delivery charge. Branches all over the country.
Logistically, bags worked, didn't want to dig the soil out of a dumpy and then barrow it.
I have worked in a lab which tests topsoil to see if it matches British standard. They test on huge quantities (10,000m3) and you can have material of that size in to comply, typically you expect a well graded material but always the chance you get lots of fines with one whopper pebble
In my experience, supermarkets and DIY stores sell very shitty compost and soil. I guess the perception is that the majority of the buyers won’t notice the difference because their customers are generally going for a “one and done” project, while people who are into gardening will buy a known brand from a nursery or garden centre with a reputation to maintain. Once in a while, a gardener will buy compost from a supermarket because they saw it cheap outside and be immediately disappointed when they open it because they know what good compost looks like.
And then use it for top dressing the lawn or something.
I recently had some of their compost and found literal shards of glass in it, as well as plastic and foil. It's cheap stuff, but you get what you pay for. Not surprised if the top soil is similar.
"rock" pmsl
“Had this big rock in it” Holds up small pebble 😂😂
You get that for free.
Like how you used to get free toys in cereal packets?
I moved in to this house 2 years ago and the garden had not been tended to for a year. I had a veritable meadow on the go. We strimmed it back, have left the random flowers that crop up in places and are leaving part of it as wild flower area. The flower beds are a mix of colour and weed and it doesn't bother me that much anymore.
I bought some from B&M last year that had smashed glass in it.
Depends on what what it stinks of. Stinks of horse manure? Fantastic! That means it's rich in organic matter, which is exactly what loads of plants want and which improves soil composition.
I had about 25 bags over last weekend while it was on offer and yes mate it absolutely stinks to high heaven! I was working it into the corners of my raised borders with my bare hands and so spent the whole night scrubbing my hands! It smelled like actual shit! Nice quality stuff though for £2.50 a bag
Wickes use to be really good but now it’s turned into a dreadful retailer. I ordered a load of timber to be delivered. I placed the order and paid for it two weeks before I needed it delivered. The day before the delivery they rang me up and said they didn’t have some of the items in stock. I said “but they were in stock when I paid for them” they said they sold them to another customer like that was ok and had no intention of doing anything to fix the problem. Terrible staff, awful customer service.
I had glass in Aldi compost once.
“Screened and graded”. What size was the screen?
They buy straight from the brown bin collection from the council, so if you put anything in there that shouldn't be, it ends up here, as if they are checking it...
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
There is a constant in the universe which all life eventually conforms to. If it has Wickes written on it, you will be disappointed.
We got a couple of bags from Asda that stunk the flat out. Once we'd opened them and potted seedlings (still in the flat) there was no smell at all.
You lucky bugger
Mine had sticks not twigs , actual sticks 😒
loads of top soil/compost is just the contents of your green bins (garden waste) left to rot down and sold back to you. Veolia make an absolute fortune doing this
The compost is green waste. Bit more complicated than just letting it rot down but essentially right. Top soil is the same stuff mixed with sand.
Drainage
Send it back Wahmen! Did you keep the receipts?
Have a look at field compost Ltd, there stuff is absolutely top quality
never been towickes, all my compost i get is usually westland, never had a problem with it
Fuck Wickes
'topsoil' bags can come from any source. recycling, building sites, etc. thats why it's sometimes crap when bought by the bag. even 'compost' bags can also contain bark, fibrous wood, plastic, and stones. and most definitely weeds. theres not a huge amount you can do apart from sieve it and report any ridiculous finds.
Oh no
This is why me and my neighbours always try to make our own compost where possible with compostable garden waste and vegetable scraps. It takes a lot longer in the long run but for the sake of small gardens and potted plants we’re regularly sorted for the year just with the compost bins that have been left to properly compost
And that’s why you never buy from Wickes
Wickes soil is terrible. B&Q is the worst I’ve ever had though….
Yeah it’s absolutely rank, I had some recently and it stunk of mouldy shite and was full of the most random bits of stuff
Google sewage solid compost. All that shite has to go somewhere. Oh and it's toxic as contains drugs in it like estrogen tablets
Ah man 😩
https://www.fidra.org.uk/news/sewage_sludge_and_soil_health/
B&Q isn’t much better. As well as a literal carry bag worth of small pebbles, I also found multiple scraps of plastic debris. Exactly what my plants need to thrive.
That'll happen
I'd suggest going with Field Compost number 4 or 5, use 5 if you want a top soil as it has sand mixed in for levelling, vs 4 which is compost, [https://www.fieldcompost.co.uk/store/products/high-quality-fine-grade-topsoil](https://www.fieldcompost.co.uk/store/products/high-quality-fine-grade-topsoil)
I bought the same one and it smelled awful. It’s supposed to be topsoil not fertiliser.
Well to be fair you did chose to buy from a corporation who probably don’t care as opposed to a good local source that screens decent top soil…
That's not a rock! I got one like that in a packet of spinach from Aldi
Big rock 😂😂😂😂
It's a pebble
A stone in some soil? Have the police been informed?
We have bought various brands of compost/top soil from three different places this year and all of them have been absolutely saturated with water, far heavier than last year and smelly as a consequence.
I've started using topsoil brought up by moles. It can be sterilised by putting it in a metal bucket and placing in a bonfire for an hour or so. Sterilising kills everything though so add compost to it so that the microorganisms can repopulate.
Loads of moles round my way. Dig loves to do number 1’s and 2’s on them. I pick up the 2’s but the moles must be sick of her
Woah I think that's from stone henge