How to make soil blocks

There is one home-made compost I haven’t covered yet: and that’s blocking compost.

Parsley seedlings growing in soil blocks

It’s a bit of a niche topic, and a very specialist compost (though simple to make) - but once you’ve tried soil blocks you’ll be hooked. It’s a really simple, and pretty much totally sustainable way to make seedling starter modules.

There’s no plastic involved at all, if you don’t count the tray you mix the compost in (I sometimes use a tin bath instead). It takes ten minutes to make enough modules to fill a tray – so it’s much quicker than, say, newspaper pots. And it really works, especially if you’re sowing veg which dislike root disturbance, like parsley.

With apologies for the rough-and-ready state of my working area at the moment (no time to tidy up just now, too busy sowing) - here's what you do: