Turf stack revisited - with pictures

Hi All

About two years ago, I built this stack with turf I cut from my lawn when I was preparing the ground for two small raised beds.


Last week, I dug the stack out to use its contents to top up my raised beds.


The quality of the soil was pretty good, as you can see...


The matured soil is full of dead fibrous roots from the turfs that have decomposed and you have to check carefully to ensure that no roots are actively growing. Live roots are white and juicy-looking and quite obvious. The counsel of perfection would be to sieve it all but that would take ages and I was in a hurry.

Was it worth the effort? Most definitely! I badly needed to improve the quality of my soil and the turf stack has helped enormously at no cost. You just have to be patient!

 

I dont understand. Why would you want to sieve it? Wouldn't that take out the organic matter (grass roots)?

 

NewbieGreen

The soil from the stack contains a lot of visible fibrous roots which you have to judge are dead. If they're not, it would be like sowing grass everywhere when you mix it with other soil. Some roots may look dead but possibly aren't. They could revive when exposed to the right conditions. Sieving would allow you to take out all the visible root material if you wanted to be on the safe side. You'd still have plenty of good textured soil left.