Composted Top Soil

Our first move when opening new ground for planting is to remove blocks of sod where quack grass is the dominat plant.  Top soil is also taken so the sod blocks are piled intending to have the grass and its extensive root system simply rot away.  The green vertical wall is quack grass growing where sunlight shines upon it.  The top of the pile was also green before a huge number of buckets of weeds were dumped and pushed to the rear of the pile removing all green growth.   

This end of the pile contains well aged top soil that is free of weeds.  A wagon load of screened finished product was removed and carefully placed on the top of the bed that will soon receive the seed garlic cloves.  Screening allows us to remove any remaining plant parts and larger stones.  We intend to leave this freshly placed gold alone so that natural activity can work the aged topsoil down into the planting bed.

This view shows both treasure and trash.  Any green growth or root pieces removed are thrown to the rear of the pile where they can rot with the recently pulled weeds.  Our compost pile closer to home also contains all of the food scraps from the kitchen.  This mix produces a black compost that is rich in nutrients.  It is unlikely that we will haul any of this to the garlic bed for a lack of time.  Our combination of a bed that was fallow for several years then topped with well rotted manure and aged topsoil might just give us a decent harvest weather permitting.  In any event this is the best prepared bed that we have ever planted.