I was moaning the other day about lack of garden centres locally and the prices of buying lime and fertiliser in the small quantities that the garden centres and DIY sheds sell. I actually paid more for 10Kg of lime than I used to pay for a 25Kg sack from Taylors Choice in Crewe.
We tend to buy more online since we moved. Our nearest DIY shop is 15 miles away and as the tourist season heats up, crowding the roads, that can become a three quarters of an hour journey each way. Not to mention the petrol costs a small fortune nowadays. And it isn’t going to get cheaper!
The problem is that most online retailers will happily pop something into a jiffy bag and post it off but the cost of sending a sack of lime means they just don’t sell them. Usually. Well I phoned Richard Taylor, who owns Taylors and he explained they will send out bulk items for reasonable cost via his online shop: www.taylorschoice.co.uk
His delivery system is set up on two tiers, under a 100Kg and over.
Now the economics of this mean that, for our area, we can get bulk supplies delivered at low cost so long as we order £150.00 worth in one go. That might sound a lot but we can get through 20 bags of multi-purpose compost in a season! Still, it’s quite a sizeable order amount for us. So off around the neighbours and we got together to make up a bulk order between us. In fact we ended up at nearly £300!
Wholesale Allotment Supplies
As well as being a retail supplier, Taylors also have a wholesale section for supplying commercial and allotment associations and sites which has to be worth checking out.
I’m new to this amazing grow your own lifestyle. Well truth is we / my wife & I have reconnected with the land after a twenty five year break. It’s not cheap to grow your own but the rewards are amazing. But one thing I have realised is you need a constant supply I think, of feeds & things. Our first port of call used to be the BIG DIY outlets, that was until we connected with our neighbouring allotment shop. Amazing, 25kg bag of Growmore £14.50 plus all your other supplies well below anywhere else. I have a Q. Nutrimate, everyone is raving about it. I bought some, 2lb bag £1.30. Can anyone tell me what it is?
That’s the way to get the Local shops shut down
Barry – for us there are no local shops. Specifically for gardening supplies, the shops are long gone. Where the name remains, it’s because they’ve turned into a garden centre shopping experience. Selling clothing, ornaments and so on is more profitable than bags of fish, blood & bone.
Mike Price, look Nutrimate up on your favorite browser. I did and found it is a plant growth stimulator. There are over 96,000 entries from which to choose . You can learn a lot from that much info.