Buying soil guide

When buying soil, you need to understand the type of soil your garden needs, how it will blend into the existing soil and what type of nourishing foundation it will offer, for growing plants, scrubs and healthy green lawns.

We have worked with a selection of speciality soil distributors and suppliers over many years and are specialists in this area. Prior to carrying out work, we investigate the following components of your soil composition:

• pH balance
• Potential to help grow plants, flowers, shrubs and repair sun-scorched dry-lawn patches (more here)
• Ability to nourish and grow seeds from infancy
• Nutritional contents
• Consistency: clay, fine, muddy or water-logged
• Ability to provide a strong foundation for the aeration and scarification process, prior to turf being laid

It is important that we examine your existing soil mixture to understand more about it. This is how we help you achieve a healthy, luscious green garden.

Soil should be delivered in bulk bags – these will often carry in the region of 800kg or 0.5-0.6 m³ – however, unfortunately, this will often not go as far as needed, especially if we are filling in old tree-stump holes or levelling soil prior to turfing.

As a rule of thumb, if we want to go by weight, the volume required x 1.6 will give a fair approximation of the tonnage of soil required.

When choosing soil for lawns, we need to be aware that many providers will automatically add “green waste” as compost to the soil, this is holistically nice but not good for lawns. The green waste will instantly begin to compost and break-down in the same way that manure-based products do, in flower beds, so we quickly end up with uneven ground.

If we are looking to create lawns, lay new turf or level areas, we should be looking for a mineral-based substrate (such as sandy, loamy and clayey soil types) that will not break down and that isn’t too sandy, as this is “free-draining” and dries out too quickly. If we have too much (or too deep) sand, it is visible in the lawn’s patchiness; a common occurrence, if it has been spread unevenly, when used to fill holes or divots in the soil. prior to turfing or garden seeding.

We do not want a soil that is too “heavy” or one that contains too much clay, as this can be difficult to work with. A significant amount of clay is good, as it retains moisture and nutrients; ideally, we want a good blend of soil and clay.

Unfortunately, many bulk-bags of soil contain what is known as “crush muck away” – debris from building sites – that has been put through a crushing machine, to break up any visible large lumps. This type of debris “soil” is easily recognisable, with little bits of brick or what may look like coat (crushed tarmac) included – this substrate should be avoided.

In truth, any competent topsoil provider should be able to prove its provenance and be able to explain where it came from and its characteristics. If they can’t tell you much about it, you should seek another supplier.