I recently purchased twenty cubes of soil and in retrospect, I have been disappointed by the quality of what turned up. It feels woody and dusty and it doesn't drain very well so I now have my work cut out for me to improve it. Worms and compost/seaweed I think. Were it autumn at the time six months if seaweed and scraps would no doubt have helped prepare for spring but I wonder what this manufactured soil is actually made from and what other experience people have had.
A lot of soil you buy is ‘sandy loam’ it is often ok for the first year because of all the added manure (tell tale stench). A year later it is dry and water repellant. You had a really bad batch by the sounds of it. You will need a lot of compost and well rotted manutres to improve this soil and even then it may remain hydrophobic – use a soil wetting agent too 20 cubic metres is a lot to have to sort out I don’t envy you!
what did they call it David? Planting mix, three way mix, sandy loam? Sounds like it has a lot of organic matter in it…
They called it premium gold (soilco nowra) which consists of somthing called VENM soil, certified compost and sand. I shall dig trenches through it and add material…I’m collecting seaweed and cut grass from neighbours…this has had no serious rain on it either so any water that goes in i expect gets sucked away into its surrounding soil.
I recall Peter May at Burnley saying that buying in soil will end in tears! Suspect that is mostly right, better to improve what is there. Although sometimes not possible. A Masters student presented on soils from nurseries/soil yards for vegetable growing and the results were dismal even for one that you would expect to do well. The soil yards should be able to give you an analysis of the soil – which I did manage to get once – but one place up here told someone who complained about the quality that the customer should have done the analysis before buying it! While that seems to be wrong way round, perhaps for some basic info not a bad idea…
This discussion couldn’t be more timely. Built a new home in Kyneton. Clay soils – real pug!! Builder excavated site and removed and “disposed of” 200ml topsoil. Remaining sub-soil is now baked hard – impenetrable with a shovel. Recent rain sat in pools for days. Rototiller to crack??
Gypsum?? Composting?? Bringing in new “topsoil” completes my nightmare. Any suggestions, thoughts would be welcomed.
This is a perennial issue. Having spent a number of years as a consultant in this area, I recognize how difficult it is for small scale gardeners to work access good soil. Most soil yard soil is not soil but rather predominantly compost and manure. Most of this will decompose quite quickly. Adding more compost may not be the issue in the longer term. Ideally you need a good written specification and a yard that can tell you what the properties of the mixes they sell are. Simon Leake’s book Soils for Landscape Development is excellent in this respect, in terms of providing advice about how to build new soils. There’s some interesting work at Cornell University in the US about a soil improvement method called Scoop and Dump. Prof Nina Bassuk writes about it and a Google search will find it. Its very good for dealing with damaged soil on site and can help avoid bringing bought “soil” into projects. There’s also some really interesting work that uses sand and gravel as topsoil replacments in landscapes. The Woody Meadow Project in Melbourne does this (Google again). My colleague James Hitchmough at Uni of Sheffiled in the UK has done a lot on this The Sheffield Grey to Green project is a great example of this approach in large scale projects. What is good about this approach is that sand and gravel of good quality are usually fairly easily obtained. Good landscape soil mixes on the other hand are not. This is a huge and vexatious problem and a shame on the industry that claims to service gardeners and landscapers.
A lot of the projects we were looking at in The Netherlands and Germany specify ‘Engineered soils’, with carefully controlled drainage and nutrition characteristics. As a designer, I love the idea of the control this would allow, but as a planet-lover, it feels very ecologically invasive. Wonder what the future is with such soils…
I think the answer to your quite reasonable question is that it depends on what these ‘engineered’ soils are. I’d always rather work with site soil for reasons of reduced impact, and also because it is so hard to get good replacement soil in Australia. The Dutch and Germans are much more technically astute than many of us are and I’m sure these soil replacements are carefully specified and managed. Simon Leake’s book on Landscpae Soils is the best resource available in Australia and its a pity that it isn’t more widely used. A lot of LAs are now using specifications from it (how well is another question) but they stil struggle to find soil suppliers who can deliver against the criteria it specifies for different soil applications.