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Feb 1, 2016 12:48 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
Hi angelynfa. Welcome to ATP!

I would Google "dirt yard {town state}" I guess "dirt yard McKinney TX". Then make some calls to find price per cubic yard, AND delivery cost to your location. Delivery could be as much as half the cost.

When you find some dirt yards that are cheap enough and close enough to you, go look at what they're calling "topsoil" and push your hands into it and squeeze a handful. If it sticks into a clump, it might be too clay-ey.

The bigger the organization, the crummier that "topsoil" might be. In my limited experience, price does not indicate quality in a dirt yard. It indicates whether the owners are greedy and have access to any GOOD soil.

(If you buy compost in bulk, or a compost-soil mix or a "three-way" mix of compost, topsoil and bark or sand, a farm may be the best place to get compost. They will know if they have weed seeds or persistent herbicides, and might even tell you!)

What you want most, is whatever your soil has least of. If you have sandy soil that doesn't hold enough water, topsoil that's heavy with clay might be ideal for you. If you have heavy clay, something light with good drainage would be best.

Organic matter (compost) is almost always needed.

You might also consider that AMENDING the soil you already have might be cheaper and give better results than buying all-new soil.

Almost any unimproved soil needs compost. A cubic yard of compost might let you make 2-3 cubic yards of fairly decent soil from what you already have. Finely shredded bark and crushed stone might be good for many soil types, also.

But you'll have to mix them in by digging and forking or roto-tilling. You may have to wheelbarrow soil from a site their truck can reach, to some of your beds.

Once you have half-decent soil, adding compost every year (or even twice per year, fall and spring) will improve it to wonderful soil over several years. A few inches of compost per year should be a minimum. The maximum is probably "all the leaves and mulch and compost you can make or afford to buy".

Ongoing compost additions are necessary.

And adding a layer of mulch - whatever is available locally - protects soil and roots from heat, and variations in cold, and from drying out, and from being pounded by rain into a crust, and from weeds, and maybe even from some pests.

Four to six inches of raw compost-makings on top of the soil as mulch is not too much, as long as you lay it down AROUND, not on top of, any young plants. And you can always mulch heavily in the space between rows.

Mulch is great. And after a year or two, it breaks down into more compost.

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