I broke down and did the unthinkable... I actually went out and bought some soil builders for my garden. :O
I've used up all my compost and my hens just aren't pooping fast enough for me to make a lot more.
Well, I'm actually glad I went. The local topsoil place was beautiful and felt like a kid in a candy store!
They had a ton of different piles of stuff: dirt, soil, redwood, humus, gravel, rocks, and a bunch of different types of sand. What was cool is they said I could buy as little or as much as I wanted and that I could even make up my own mix.
Here is what they have in their "planter mix" for $40 a yd:
Shredded Redwood
Humus
Screened Soil
Small amount Sand
Small amount Lava Rock
The humus alone looked really amazing. Super dark and rich. Humus or screened / shredded redwood or any combination of the two was $33 a yd.
There was a pile of premixed 1/2 humus and 1/2 ground redwood with a little bit of tiny red lava rock mixed in (supposedly this helps with water retention or something). I filled two contractor grade garbage bags and walked out $12 lighter. (I'll post a pic of the stuff tomorrow).
I'm not sure how this place's prices compare with other places for the same stuff, but I was pretty much left without many options for good soil and needed to get something from somewhere.
I used some to top off my raised planter box and then used a bunch more to fill up some very large planting pots.
For these very large pots (probably at least 20 gallon) I did the following:
1) Got a bunch of dry clay soil from the lot behind our house. They had just disced the yard for weed abatement so it made it easy to shovel. Other than having lots of clay it was full of weeds... but desperate times = desperate measures.
2) I missed about 2/3 of this clay soil with 1/3 of my humus/redwood mix and filled the planter about 1/2 full
3) I screened some of more of the dry clay soil (still lots of weeds, but less rocks) and mixed this 1/3 clay with 2/3 humus/redwood mix and filled it about 3 inches from the top.
4) I filled the rest with just humus/redwood mix.
So... this is a total experiment and I almost have no idea what I'm doing. Please give me your thoughts and feedback on everything above. Let me have it!!! Did I pay too much for stuff I don't need? Should I not have used the dirt from the yard... clay/weeds and all? What about the humus / redwood / lava rock mix... any good?
Oh ye wise ones of soil building... Teach me the right ways and rip me a new one if needed.
I've used up all my compost and my hens just aren't pooping fast enough for me to make a lot more.
Well, I'm actually glad I went. The local topsoil place was beautiful and felt like a kid in a candy store!
They had a ton of different piles of stuff: dirt, soil, redwood, humus, gravel, rocks, and a bunch of different types of sand. What was cool is they said I could buy as little or as much as I wanted and that I could even make up my own mix.
Here is what they have in their "planter mix" for $40 a yd:
Shredded Redwood
Humus
Screened Soil
Small amount Sand
Small amount Lava Rock
The humus alone looked really amazing. Super dark and rich. Humus or screened / shredded redwood or any combination of the two was $33 a yd.
There was a pile of premixed 1/2 humus and 1/2 ground redwood with a little bit of tiny red lava rock mixed in (supposedly this helps with water retention or something). I filled two contractor grade garbage bags and walked out $12 lighter. (I'll post a pic of the stuff tomorrow).
I'm not sure how this place's prices compare with other places for the same stuff, but I was pretty much left without many options for good soil and needed to get something from somewhere.
I used some to top off my raised planter box and then used a bunch more to fill up some very large planting pots.
For these very large pots (probably at least 20 gallon) I did the following:
1) Got a bunch of dry clay soil from the lot behind our house. They had just disced the yard for weed abatement so it made it easy to shovel. Other than having lots of clay it was full of weeds... but desperate times = desperate measures.
2) I missed about 2/3 of this clay soil with 1/3 of my humus/redwood mix and filled the planter about 1/2 full
3) I screened some of more of the dry clay soil (still lots of weeds, but less rocks) and mixed this 1/3 clay with 2/3 humus/redwood mix and filled it about 3 inches from the top.
4) I filled the rest with just humus/redwood mix.
So... this is a total experiment and I almost have no idea what I'm doing. Please give me your thoughts and feedback on everything above. Let me have it!!! Did I pay too much for stuff I don't need? Should I not have used the dirt from the yard... clay/weeds and all? What about the humus / redwood / lava rock mix... any good?
Oh ye wise ones of soil building... Teach me the right ways and rip me a new one if needed.
