Topsoil Tips
Topsoil Tips
Topsoil is often purchased to supplement or improve the landscape around the house. The use of topsoil enhances the quality of plantings, improves the health of your landscape plant materials, and helps you cultivate a healthier, greener lawn.
With Dirt Guy's tips in your pocket, you’ll be ready to confidently and effectively purchase and apply your topsoil.
When adding topsoil into your landscaping, be aware that a layer can be created that will affect how water moves throughout. One example would be to put a very sandy topsoil in a planting pit for a tree that is surrounded by a high clay soil with a lot of surface water. The natural tendency would be to create an area that may well be too wet for the plant's roots since the water will tend to accumulate in the clay-like soil and not drain back out.
This is the basis for the recommendation to blend topsoil with the subsoil when putting down topsoil for lawn establishment. Without doing this, a plant can be established where the roots will not penetrate well, and the water may not soak in. In some cases, this differential may cause erosion of the topsoil on steeper slopes.
Opposite of sandy soil would be a high organic soil type. You can add and mix in our Super Soil, which is a 50-50 mix of our high-quality fertile soil and well-aged yard waste compost. This provides root area soil that retains water well and provides nutrients to the root area.
Topsoil is the top layer of soil on the earth’s crust. This material is highly variable, depending on where you buy it. Without a large emphasis on both buying it from places that have high organic content and the right mix of sand, silt, and clay, the product you receive may not produce the results you want without fertilizer and a lot of supplements. The second step in producing quality screened topsoil is in the screening. The soil has to be dry enough to screen without ruining the tilth of the soil and handled so that it stays fluffed up.
Dirt Guy has been involved in the topsoil and landscaping materials business for years. Knowing the variables and how they interact is not rocket science, but does take a guy that is devoted to dirt and a quality product. Many companies make up for some of the components naturally missing in the native soil by mixing in other things. There are a lot of different soil types in the state of Connecticut, so what is selected to start with has a large impact on the end product produced. An example would be a company that mixes in leaf compost or recycled organic material to make up for what is not in the soil. This can make a good product if done well, but if the compost is not well-decayed, this material will be taking up nutrients that would have been available to the plants. You should be aware of the trade-offs that may be present. We manage it for you so that you do not have to be concerned about getting anything but good-quality topsoil.
