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wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

have any of you bought top soil, and if so, was it pricey?

I live RIGHT on the coast (us, field, sea, america...) and there is such little soil here. I've been asking everyone around for the past 2 years, trying to get some, but it's a tough thing to find. Can't seem to find anyone advertising it, either. As we're renting I don't want to spend a fortune on the garden, but in turning 1/4acre into a dog/flower garden this year it would be nice to have actual soil. Still, we're geting pretty good at making it now. Occasionally, whe I see people's thick black, crumbly garden soils on tv I have to walk away and do something else, the green eyed gardener gets too much to bear!

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blowin · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:09 am Post subject:

Well I have bought what was supposed to be topsoil . In fairness it was soil from the top of something but sure as hell not what I meant by "topsoil" , as in something which should be good for the garden .
I would like to think the error was in the anglo > irish translation but I doubt it .
I thought I would be getting 20 tons ( 20 cu yds ) of good quality stuff for E150 .
In my absence they dropped what turned out to be 15 cu yds and charged MOH E250 .
Worse than that it was absolute cr*p , ( or rather it wasn't -- a bit of manure would have improved it ) . Full of matted scutch roots and roughly 30% of the remaining volume was rocks .
Greed had got the better of me through the classic friend of a friend will drop a load on his way back nudge nudge wink wink .
I can't decide whether it was a good or a bad thing that i got short-delivered because it was such rubbish anyway !
Be sure to see where it is coming from , or be very confident in the person who recommends it before you buy ! Wink

1/4 acre at say 6 inches deep = er , one hell of a lot !
Other way round , 1 cu yd cut into 6" layers will cover 6 sq yds . For the purposes of this calc you can say 1 cu yd weighs 1 ton , and the loose soil will settle by about 25% of its depth once it has been spread and weathered .
I think that about covers it Laughing

Camile · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:56 am Post subject:

Hello,

We are going to build an extension in the next couple of months.

Once ESB has removed the pole, we will have to dig a good bit because the field down the back of the house is almost a meter higher than the level of the floor of the house ..

so we will have plenty of top soil available .. and nowhere near enough room to keep it all ..

It's decent soil has we've been growing veg with loads of success with it .. it used to be grazed by cows, and now it's goats and sheep on it .. plus the odd chook when they decide to go there ..

I don't know how "far deep" the clay layer is ... but there is definitely plenty of good quality soil there ...

Let me know what you think ..
Camile

wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

....hitching trailer...... Laughing

maybe we could come to some happy arrangement for both of us when you have it?
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Camile · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:57 pm Post subject:

I'm sure we can because we will have to dispose of it one way or another ..

we are closed to Glenamaddy in Co. Galway, so hopefully you have a big trailer because it might be a bit of a drive ...

tringle · Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:06 pm Post subject:

We have some pretty good soil here, and when building the house had to dig out a lot of soil. We kept the topsoil aside and had truck loads of what we called rubble and rubbish, which eventually only had to travel two firlds away to build up he river bank (It did take us 10 weeks to find out that the owner needed it) Anyway, out sister in law who lives in Galway seen what was being got rid of and almost had heart failure, she said it was better than her topsoil, if only she didnt live 100 miles away.
Anyway, soil is completly different so yes blowin I can see how that happened, always look when ordering and check when it is delivered

wayout west, just check the local papers, and also ask on freecycle, if you can collect its not usually hard to find (peer the countryside for new houses been built and talk to local builders)
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keithrawlins · Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 152 Location: banbridge

it costs about 10 sterling a ton up here but any large housing devlopment might be looking rid of a good bit ,if you can collect it you should get it cheap or free just through the digger man a few quid.

wayoutwest · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 184 Location: west clare

well, to update the topsoil struggle story here, we've asked, looked, enquired, and generally talked a lot about it for the paswt few months. It's like gold dust here, and the last lot of decent stuff in a trailer the bloke wanted 500 quid.

so, we'll do without. much as I'd love to land on Camile's doorstep with a trailer, it's a bit further away than I thought. We compost well, and add loads of nice things to the ground so we'll just have to make our own soil. Good thing we're pretty great at that now! Very Happy

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Jack · Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 71 Location: North Otago

Gidday

Don't worry about buying the bloody stuff mate. Make your own.

Start off with bales of straw and plant straight into them. You say you are by the sea so go harvest the seaweed, you caint do better than that either.

Straw bales gardening is great but I can't remember if I have posted that on this forum.
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Jack
QBE

blowin · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:39 pm Post subject: