Loam

I am currently digging out some lawn for a new path and border. Reading other post people have said stack it grass side down to make Loam. What is loam used fo,is it a soil conditioner or does it have other uses?

Rusty

 

Hi Rusty,

Soil conditioner and an ingredient in potting composts usually.

Did I see you playing away on another Gardening forum?

 

Grass to grass and soil to soil is far better than "brown side up". Cheers, Tony.

 

You got me Ziggy, I always come home to GC though

 

Glad you know which side your loam is buttered

 

if you don't have a specific intended use for strip off as "turf" and bury it, grass side down, in the bottom of the "trench" as you dig the new bed. It will rot down and provide a nice moisture-retaining spongy layer for the new plants to get their roots into. (It may steal some Nitrogen in the process, but if you will be fertilizing the new plants that shouldn't matter)

 

Cheers all,

I think I will use it as Kristen said as for some reason it is clay soil. Strange as the rest of the garden is very well draining. I will dig out and dig in some gravel, then put turf in as Kristen said then fill in with lots of manure and compost. Hopefully this should sort out the drainage as now I have taken the turf off it is really holding water.

 

You would be better off with "horticultural grit" (also referred to, ex-Quarry, as "Fines" I think) rather than "gravel". Gravel is typically larger, and you need something with rough angular edges (so rounded pebbles dredged from a water course won't work well for drainage, but might well be what you put on your drive and paths), but "gravel" is a generic term, so you may have been referring to the rough-edge stuff anyway

 

Hi Kristen

Thanks for you reply. I have searched horticultral grit and the only place I can find it is B & Q and it is £6.40 for 25 Kg bag, so this would work out quite expensive. Whereas i already have 10 bags of 10mm gravel that i have taken of the garden and I have no real use for it now. I have also read PeterS's post in 'Garden Projects' titled Improving clay and I thought it would be a good use of the gravel I already have, as this is what he used due to the cost of the grit. I had a good look at the gravel I have last night and it is a mix of round and rough edged so i am hoping that this will do the job. I have also found some one who has as much free manure as i want so this will also keep the cost down.

Cheer
Rusty

 

Would be better if it was 5mm (I think "fines" are 1mm - 6mm). I buy it, online, for about £4.20 / 25kg (excluding carriage, but I normally buy a large enough mixed load that carriage is not significant)

 

With 10mm rounded grit, would you not end up with Chesil beach instead of lose loam ?

Jack McH

 

I could fish that

 

I don't know the answer I'm afraid, it may be just fine, but "My understanding", learnt from others, is that it needs Small-and-Sharp. Christo Lloyd was a big exponent of Grit, and its probably from his writings that I formed my opinion, but that was a long time ago, and I have not remembered his precise words - they'll be worth reading though, he was a great wordsmith. Probably from his book with a title something like "The well tempered gardener".

 

Change of plan, I have bought a 6mm riddle and I will riddle the gravel I have and anything bigger than 6mm will go back into garden and smaller as drainage. If I need more I will riddle more gravel off garden to make up shortfall. Then I will put cut turf in and finally, manure which I picked up today and then compost/topsoil.