On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:54:02 +0100, "john hamilton"
wrote:

When the local council have pulled out all the 'finished' plants they have
put out in flower beds, they throw them on a big unsightly heap in a remote
corner of the cemetery.

After a while it ends up being a very sandy type of compost. It doesnt look
like there is much loam in it.

Would this be good to throw into garden pots mixed with some additional
soil? I guess the dead plants would just rot down and add some nutrition to
the mix?

It also has a lot of small bits of chopped tree bark in it. Would this tree
bark help with moisture retention, or would it be a waste of time from that
point of view? Would I be better picking out the tree bark and throwing it
away? Thanks.

Except for the sand the organics in a gallon of potting soil will in a
few short years compost down to perhaps a tablespoonful of dust... for
instance an entire bale of peat moss will compost down to one fistful.
The litter that accumulates on a forest floor creates perhaps one inch
of topsoil in 100 years... it's best to use new potting soil. A
corner of a cemetery is a great place for laying to rest old potting
soil.