Need advice on top soil!!

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can help, i want to re-do my front garden which involves ripping out a few Pines a couple of hedge bushes and some other bits and put in a lawn to open up the area.

However, my house is (well was) a new build and the ground is full of builders rubble clay and god knows what else! so i planned to rip it all out, take off the top few inches of soil and replace with some top soil.

But i have a few questions i was hoping someone could help me with...

A. Is this the right time of year to be doing this (planned for this coming weekend)
B. does anyone know where i can get some reasonable priced top soil?
& C. and should i be looking for anything in particular?

Oh... and if anyone can tell me if i'm doing the right thing or totally crazy.... let me know!

Naomi x

 

Hi Naomi,

Do it! Do it ASAP! I moved into a brand new build over three years ago and had years of problems until I got a digger in and removed about ten tonnes of rubbish. As the ground was mainly clay I also had to install a drainage system and backfill it all with stone chips and topsoil. Wish I had done it sooner.

It may still be warm enough for you to lay new lawn or seed, or you may want to wait until next spring, when you're sure of what option you're going for. The last thing you want to do is rip up your front garden now and leave it bare over winter.

Look in the Yellow Pages for topsoil providers. If you can, try and visit the site to check out the quality of the soil. Ideally you want to be looking for a rich, chocolate brown, fine, crumbly tilth - not one full of clumps of sods or that is covered in weeds. Do not waste time going to garden centres or DIY shops.

Good luck!! :thmb:

 

Suppliers in your area Naomi..
http://www.topsoil.co.uk/index.php?...3=telford&pc=&db=GB&reclimit=10&type=stockist

 

Hi naomib83

Just before you excavate your whole garden, is it necessary?

What you are planning is a big job.

First of all what is really down there. The builders will have excavated for the foundations so you will have a mix of topsoil in there but what was on the site before? If it was a farmers field your probably OK, if it was the local colliery you could have problems (you can find out).

Dig out a sample-ideally two spades depth but one is OK. Spread the soil out run it through your hands even smell it. Difficult to explain in words but you soon get to know a good soil. Your first job then is to identify what condition the soil is in and the next is to identify what type of soil it is.

Here is some help

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/module1/soil_types1.shtml

 

i bought a house just like what you are describing, buried builders rubble. got a guy in to take off few inches, then bring in top soil. worked fine for the lawns, but anytime i try to plant a treee or shrub, and have to go down past 3/4 inches i am hitting iron bars, pieces of wood, slates, large rocks, pieces of concrete, plastc, you name it. i wouold recommend if you are planning a hedge or anything you get hime to dig a bit deeper at the location of the hedge so that you don't face the same problems as me