What is turf in a compost recipe?

[pehe]

In an old SRGC journal I have found the following compost which I would like to try:
2 gravel, 2 peat, 1 turf, 1 humus. The first two ingredients are obvious to me but I am not sure of the last two.
I 'translate' turf as loam and humus as leaf mould. Am I right?

Can one of you native English speakers help me?

Poul

[Maggi Young]

Turf is  grass - that is, lumps of grass as when one digs up a lawn.   It is stored to allow  the fibres in it to break do and is then rubbed through a grid to render it friable.

(When one wishes to make a lawn one can sow seeds  or buy and lay Turf,  rolls of growing grass )
Turf is also  used to describe any grassy ground  covering - grazing meadows have turf......

Hope this helps!

[Ezeiza]

An old recipe for loam with a high organic content was to dig (scatch?) the upper 2 in. or so or soil with the grass, etc. from a pasture and pile them upside down until the plants in them were well decomposed. These were called "turves".

[pehe]

Thank you Maggi and Alberto!
I am not sure that my wife will be happy if I dig up my lawn and put it in a big pile.....
Well at least I know what I shall do with the material I get from trimming the edge of the lawn.

Poul

[Gerry Webster]

My understanding of 'turf' or 'turf loam' is exactly the same as Alberto's, i.e., rotted turves. Many years ago it was possible to buy it in the UK but I imagine these days you have to make your own though - I have no idea as to whether it is worth the time & effort involved.

[Maggi Young]

As I said:  It is stored to allow  the fibres in it to break do and is then rubbed through a grid to render it friable.
We stored all our lifted  turf /lawn  -stacked upside down and left for the grass to die away - the resulting fibrous matter achieved after the process is a marvelous addition to any potting compost.We used our stores very successfully for a great many years until we exhusted the supply and had to make other arrangements ( all ocumented in Ian's Bulb Log).

I would strongly advise anyone lifting an area of lawn to take the time and effort to stack the resulting turves for later use. This is, after all, primary recycling of a valuable asset.

[Lesley Cox]

Some years ago Roger and I owned a turf business, a franchise, called "Readylawn." We had a cutter that went along and lifted the grass in rows, about 40cms wide if I remember and with about 4cms soil under the grass, and containing the roots. Then these were rolled up and stacked on a truck to take them to whoever was buying them. Then they were unrolled on a prepared bed of raked, fine soil and in almost no-time - about 2 weeks actually - the rows had grown together to make a continuous lawn and could be mowed. All this to explain that at the edges of the paddock or any pieces that weren't of sufficent quality to sell, we stacked upsidedown in an area of about a metre so that we had 2 or 3 cubic metres of upsidedown grass, becoming turf and this was incorporated in the garden whenever we need to build up or add something good to the soil. It's very good stuff and every year one man in particular bought a couple of bagsful to repot his show begonias.

[John85]

Making a substitute for turf:
Each time I have some leftover topsoil(from digging a hole for a pole for instance),I store it on a flat surface,then put on top a layer of 2'' of grass clippings,then 1'' of dead leaves,and again some soil and so on .To speed up the rotting process,I often spice it with a bit of cow manure that the cows from my neighbour are so kind to leave on the road(preferably in front of my drive) when he moves them from one pasture to another.After a year it makes a good substitute for turf without digging up the lawn!

[fermi de Sousa]

Making a substitute for turf:
Each time I have some leftover topsoil(from digging a hole for a pole for instance),I store it on a flat surface,then put on top a layer of 2'' of grass clippings,then 1'' of dead leaves,and again some soil and so on .To speed up the rotting process,I often spice it with a bit of cow manure that the cows from my neighbour are so kind to leave on the road(preferably in front of my drive) when he moves them from one pasture to another.After a year it makes a good substitute for turf without digging up the lawn!

John,
Your last name isn't Innes, is it?
 
cheers
fermi

[Helen Johnstone]

I'm in the process of lifting my back lawn and we are composting it so I should have some fab loam in a year