We have tried a couple of times to get into the whole home composting thing and pretty much both occasions have been a fail, my naive initial belief that you just pile everything in and leave nature to take its course was shown up to be wrong and my other half is away with work too much to be able to do it as gardening is not top of his priority list when he is at home.

This multi purpose compost from Homebase has to do the trick instead, it costs around the £8-£9 mark for a 120 litre bag which is a decent weight to have to shift so that is definately a job for him. The easiest way to access the contents is to open across the top of the bag, the compost itself can then be removed in fairly solid lumps and then broken down until it crumbles into the smaller fibres that are added to the bedding pots or over the area where I'm ready to plant. It has quite a dry texture so is not really messy to handle however when you water the compost takes on the turgid feel that you would expect. It really does soak up and hold the water, trapping in the mositure that will help the plants to grow and develop.

It can be used with seeds and also plants that are established as it is a multi purpose compost. It has a rich dark colour. As far as the results go I cannot complain as we have had a pretty good bloom this year in the garden and given that we do not grow a lot of plants a single bag lasts a decent amount of time.

The instructions state that it will last for 4-5 weeks in total and based on my experience that seems to be an accurate claim. It also comes in a smaller 60 litre size as well.