Cereus-validus..... wrote:
Do you know how to do a Google search, Travis?

Of course I do. The definitions people are throwing about have no
meaning. If I said I liked cake how much does that tell you?

Your friend Janet Baraclough gave these defanitions:

" Humus is (relatively recently) decayed living material such as
plant/bacterial/animal material, the stuff you get out of a compost heap
or find on the floor surface of woodland, made of decayed leaves,
decayed animal corpses and faeces etc.

Loam is a variable combination of humus plus particles of geological
elements. Geological elements are stuff like sands, chalk, clay, grits;
their origin is far more ancient than humus. "

How precise is that? About as precise as the definition of "topsoil"
given here in this group.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

"Travis" wrote in message
news:d%g0e.23205$oa6.1581@trnddc07...
Cereus-validus..... wrote:
Here we go again.

"Top soil" is ANYTHING that makes up the surface layer of the soil
and does not have any specific chemical or biological composition.
It can be good for growing plants or it could be toxic. Buying
"top soil" is buying a "pig in a poke". You may not only be
wasting your money but you can actually be doing damage to your
garden by using it.
If you instead buy "humus", "loam" or "peat", you know exactly
what you are getting and how to use it.

Please define humus and loam. Who sets the standard for them and
who enforces that standard?

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5


"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message ghY%d.22081$oa6.14080@trnddc07
from "Travis" contains
these words:
The name "top soil" has no meaning.

It's a well-known term throughout Europe, meaning the fertile
layer above subsoil. When people here buy/sell a lorry-load of
soil for horticultural use, it's normal to specify topsoil.

Janet.