"Douglas" wrote in message
Isn't it a shame that old, properly-done customs have fallen by the
wayside
due to laziness of body and mind.
It was always the custom, - before the rape of the peat beds began, - (for
money, of course), - for gardeners and especially Nurserymen to make
their
own loam for seedlings and potting-on.
They dug grass sods - usually from a field, - about inches thick, squared
them off very roughly and stacked them up to about hip or shoulder height
and left them to weather for no less than a year, My Dad and I used to
have three at time stacked. The one-year-old ones did not do too well,
that's why we built three stacks, joined together to make one long one but
the division between the three was obvious because the one just used and
replaced was just built and looked clean and new, it had no surface growth
on it.
They were stood in line in a sunny corner and we used the three-year old
one. The outside of the stacks gradually grew a grass coat each but as
the
third one came into use it, the grass was skived off and put into the
first
one to recycle and rot.. Simple!, - isn't it?. Everything happened
more
slowly in those days.
The stacks when brought into use produced an excellent friable loam ideal
for seedlings and potting. all the weeds and their seeds in the middle of
the stacks had, usually, rotted.
The last Nurseryman I saw using the method had succumbed to the peat fad
and
used it in various percentage mixes to suit the particular job in hand.

I thought gardeners just collected mole hills for potting compost.

--
Regards
Bob

Some photos of my plants at.....