Topic: Soil

[viv]

not a very exciting title!

Over Easter we stripped the front lawn (put some gravel down, easier) and made a turf mound with someof the turves.  Others we put in a raised bed and then covered them with topsoil and horse manure. It's rotting down nicely.
When can I reasonably expect to be able to start planting it?  The climbing roses which were already there are doing really well!  but I have loads of other things I want to put in.  Some of the turf mound I want to use as soil for a bog garden later in the year.

[Kerry]

hi viv :)
as far as plating into the horse muck goes, I think that as long as it's well rotted, you can go for it. Until it is, if stuff is planted in it I think it would 'scorch' and harm the roots.
Not sure about rotting of grass turfs, I guess when they look 'crumbly'?
Having said that, my mum and dad made a raised bed for some strawberries from turf edges, to quite a depth, and have had success straight away with that. Perhaps with a  bog garden it doesn't matter too much, as the water will help rot it? I wait to stand corrected however! :)