Topic: Can you make top soil?

[bluehousehill]

Hi I have been digging over my allotment. It has loads of bricks, weeds, wood loads of household rubbish. I have been raking it into big piles and then shovelling it through a sieve into a pot. The soil is coming out really dark and looks a bit like top soil that I have seen in the nurseries. Have I made top soil? I am goint to put together my raised beds tomorrow. They are all marked out and all I have to do is put together. I am loving this, it was a windy rainy day and I ache but it is fantastic! Thanks for all the previous advise it really helped.

[saddad]

The stuff you are getting is probably top-soil... only really the sub soil weathered and with lots of Humus in it ( Decomposed plant material). Wormeries produce very high quality "soil" and if Moles are a problem in the locality their "hills" are a great source of top quality soil...
 :)

[bluehousehill]

Thanks for that I have seen a few mole hills around as well. So can I use the soil for planting or do I still need to get top soil? Also do I need to put manure or chicken manure in my beds?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Moles are pretty fussy about where they live, and the hills should give you top quality topsoil.

[antipodes]

if you use the search function (click search button at top of window) you will see lots of threads about whether or not to manure. If you want to do it, hurry up so it rots down before you start the spring planting...

[bluehousehill]

Thanks antipodes I will do that