peat moss or compost for flower bed?

tommo22

Hi,
Im currently constructing a flower bed. It is 50 metres long and 2 feet wide. I have filled it within 2 inches of finished height with good quality topsoil.
I am considering finishing it with 2 inches of peat moss. I reckon the dark peat moss looks very nice and will be easy to weed.
I am also considering putting a thin layer of manure down before the peat moss to enrich the soil.
Other ideas I am thinking of is a thin layer of bark mulch to stop weeds, but maybe this is not necessary?
Any ideas before I start?
Maybe use compost instead?. Any other products you might suggest? Bear in mind I will need over 1000 litres of peat moss etc to fill, so nothing too expensive.
I'm not yet sure what plants will be in it, I will probably throw a few daffodils in for now, and build it up over the next year or so?

All suggestions welcome.

Cheers Y'all

Minder

Isn't peat moss very acidic - 4.5ph? There is some info on the pack that will tell you. A cheap top dressing is spent mushroom compost. Spent mushroom compost is made from a once used blend of wheat straw, horse and chicken manure. The proportions vary.The blend is sterilised before being inoculated with mushrooms. One crop of mushrooms is taken (some growers get more)and then the compost is released to the landscape and farming markets. Usually sold in the loose by the tonne.

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There's also the enironmental impact of Peat Moss to consider
http://www.ipcc.ie/peatfreeintro.html

tommo22

okay, so peat moss will not be used. Whats the best alternative. It needs to be readily available at the garden center, look attractive, and aid easy weed removal?

The Sweeper

It sounds like you want a mulch more than a soil product. You want a topping that looks nice and keeps the weeds down, but you're not too bothered about growing things in that bit.

Check out your local garden centre for mulch products - bark chippings, gravel or straw. If you don't particularly want your mulch incorporated into the soil of your flower bed, try laying cardboard first and covering it with the mulch.

Ellechim

I would recommend using a chipped bark mulch - I do a mega weed every spring/autumn, I dig in some chicken manure pellets, give the beds a good water and then cover my beds with bark mulch - all the garden centres do it and you can frequently get 2 for 1 offers. Do put down about 2inches of the stuff, or more. It looks good, keeps moisture in, is very easy to weed through and assimilates back into the soil. I rarely have to weed then in the course of the year (which is good because I just don't have time!) I've just weeded two beds that I put mulch on in early April - it took no time at all - I just pulled the few weeds out - however the bed I did not mulch in April effectively had to be completely dug over and start from scratch again. Not ideal. Be warned, the bags look huge but actually you will need a lot - they can probably advise you in the garden centre.

If you have access to a good lot of manure I would also add that in beforehand as it will do the quality of your soil the world of good - make sure that it is very mature (I think it has had to have been resting for about 1 year as otherwise can be toxic to plants).

Generally its a good idea to use a mulch for all the reasons above - asthetics, retaining moisture, reducing the need for weeding - there are all sorts of things you can use. However I would avoid normal compost or peat based compost - I would have thought they would attract tons of weeds.

Best of luck.