Top soil Where to get some cheap or free?

Debt_Free_Chick · 5 March 2007 at 7:38PM

angelavdavis wrote:

I live further along the coast in St Leonards

:hello: Between Battle & Rye

marleyboy · 5 March 2007 at 9:38PM

I live in Manchester, my problem stems with the garden, I'm guessing the previous tenant had a lawn, and removed it, as the layer in my garden seems too low, and just saturates in the rain, when I moved in it was overrun with weeds as tall as me. So i had the task of motivating the soil after de-weeding, it took a good 3 months for it to grow any kind of lawn, but the lawn is just too muddy, my Son cant play football in the garden as he literally sinks. I tried to make a makeshift drainage system, just a trough around the edge of the lawn, but its still not good enough, I'm wondering what to do next, I dont want to invest a large sum of money an a new lawn, and would only consider top soil if it were a reasonable price, as my property is rented. Anyone got any tips or ideas???

MissBehaving · 5 March 2007 at 9:43PM

We have some that you can have for free. We built a deck out the back and hired a skip. There was to much soil for the skip, so we still have it.

We live in AShford, Kent though.

Noah'strolly · 5 March 2007 at 11:27PM

I too am looking for topsoil. We took up a small, 2mx2m patio a few years ago and put some topsoil down, then grasses it. We didn't get all the rubble under it up so the grass never really flourished. So one day I got a mad idea and began digging it all up again. About 20 trips to the tip (with a boot full of rubble filled buckets) later I now have a huge hole in my lawn!
I thought about pinching soil from the boarders but it wouldn't go far.
Why do I start these things?

!

angelavdavis · 6 March 2007 at 10:07AM

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

:hello: Between Battle & Rye

Hey, great to see a local online!

angelavdavis · 6 March 2007 at 10:23AM

marleyboy wrote:

I live in Manchester, my problem stems with the garden, I'm guessing the previous tenant had a lawn, and removed it, as the layer in my garden seems too low, and just saturates in the rain, when I moved in it was overrun with weeds as tall as me. So i had the task of motivating the soil after de-weeding, it took a good 3 months for it to grow any kind of lawn, but the lawn is just too muddy, my Son cant play football in the garden as he literally sinks. I tried to make a makeshift drainage system, just a trough around the edge of the lawn, but its still not good enough, I'm wondering what to do next, I dont want to invest a large sum of money an a new lawn, and would only consider top soil if it were a reasonable price, as my property is rented. Anyone got any tips or ideas???

The problem sounds like a fairly tricky one to fix cheaply, you would have to install drainage channels of gravel under the lawn - something called a french drain:

http://www.stylegardens.co.uk/web_garden/diy%20pages/diysos1c.html
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lazylandscaping/ht/French_drains.htm
http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/frenchdrains.htm

Basically, you have to dig channels about six inches high under the lawn sloping away from the house and toward a big hole - known as a soakaway that you need to dig out at the lowest point (away from the house). Line the hole/channel with landscaping fabric and top with gravel, compacting well. Cover the gravel with more landscaping fabric, soil and replace the lawn over the top.

The first and last links say to use porose pipe lining the hole, but I have found gravel to be adequate - it really depends on the size of the problem. You would need to place the channels across the lawn area so they can drain the water away.

The preference is to put the soakaway into the border area, so the plants use the water, rather than run the risk of an area that might turn boggy still being on your lawn.

angelavdavis · 6 March 2007 at 10:27AM

Noah'strolly wrote:

I too am looking for topsoil. We took up a small, 2mx2m patio a few years ago and put some topsoil down, then grasses it. We didn't get all the rubble under it up so the grass never really flourished. So one day I got a mad idea and began digging it all up again. About 20 trips to the tip (with a boot full of rubble filled buckets) later I now have a huge hole in my lawn!
I thought about pinching soil from the boarders but it wouldn't go far.
Why do I start these things? !

Remember that last year in particular was really dry - depending on where you lived and no one's lawn was great!

The other option in your case is to remove half the soil from the borders and then make a visit to your local stables and get hold of some rotted manure. Mix with the lawn/border soil to top up the levels. You will run the risk of some weeds being introduced by the manure but this is the cheapest option I can think of, other than freecycle.

Another option is to produce your own compost, but if your garden isn't too large, your compost heap not very productive and you don't have large shrubs to shred to add to produce compost, you are going to have to wait forever to get enough.

i_am_really_rich!! · 6 March 2007 at 10:59PM

angelavdavis wrote:

I live further along the coast in St Leonards ]

I'm in St Leonards too, just thought I'd pop that in, nothing to do with top soil

Pink_butterfly_3 · 6 March 2007 at 11:03PM

Have you tried looking in your local paper? Thats where we got ours from.

Noah'strolly · 7 March 2007 at 5:48PM

Bit the bullet and ordered 2 1/2 tonnes from my local garden centre for £70!

Top soil Where to get some cheap or free?

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