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Soil, Compost & Mulch

compost or sandy loam with hardwood mulch?

granburyflowergirl

14 years ago

I am preparing for a new lawn or rose bed, I removed the weeds along with the roots and whatever dirt stuck to them from about a third of the site. I need to replace the lost material as it is already a low spot. I went to the landscape supply place today prepared to order top soil and compost but the sales guy told me it would be much better to go with sandy loam and hardwood mulch and mix them together. Is he right or is he just trying to get rid of his products?

Any input is appreciated

Nik

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Comments (5)

hortster
14 years ago
Whoa. If you use sandy loam topsoil and mix it with hardwood mulch you need to add nitrogen. The wood will decompose and in the process use existing nitrogen in the soil. My vote would be to add composted manure or, if you can find it, good REAL compost to the sandy loam. Both will improve the properties of soil. Organic material is good if it has been THOROUGHLY and COMPLETELY composted. Hardwood mulch may have been PARTIALLY composted but is better as a weed preventing, moisture retaining soil cover. Find a source for completely composted organic material or add a bunch of organic nitrogen like blood meal.
hortster
granburyflowergirl
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks, I thought that sounded odd. I suspect the guy either didn't know better or just wanted to make a quick sale and they are out of compost right now. I called them back and told them I want sandy loam and compost and I don't mind waiting for it.
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I had a wonderful raised bed several years ago that I filled with finished compost, or rather, nearly finished compost. It really was great stuff. I planted a couple of English roses and they grew like wildfire and you never saw such huge blooms. They were so heavy that the rose bushes couldn't support their wieght and they drooped over to the ground. I also planted cosmos seed that I had saved from a flower bed in back. The plants in back had been 28" tall but the ones in the compost reached up to the rain gutters on the house and completely blocked the sun from our picture window. The biggest surprise that we got from the compost was that there were some uncomposted cucumber seeds in it that germinated and grew into the most delicious gigantic cukes we ever tasted. Course when I found the first one, it was a complete surprise because I didn't know they were in there. SO there I was, pulling some weeds out of the planter, and I put my hand on a huge, cool green mass and I jumped about three feet in the air. When I figured out what it was I went looking in the masses of growth and found 27 cukes the smallest of which was about 15" long, and 6" circumference. You can certainly use 100% compost, but just don't expect everything to be... 'normal.' Mwahahahaha!!!!!! Cheryl
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Thanks, Wayne. I got my feet wet with SFG last spring (some planter boxes on a concrete patio) but I am starting to lean towards a more French intensive or bio intensive approach, even though I don't yet have my own compost bin. No hissy fit here... I just have some serious concerns about my native soil... the original 30+ year owner of our house was a jeweler and I have some concerns about what might be tossed into the site that we're going to use as our garden. Also, we did some construction last year (demo of old lead covered house and compaction of our clay soils), not to mention a major gopher problem. All of which made me want to plant essentially a 24" deep box above ground with a rodent mesh underneath. (I actually posted this question, too.) The SFGers think anything more than 6" is a waste, but I know I need more. I was almost completely convinced that 16" would be fine but I am thinking of going back to my original plan of 23" deep boxes. Plenty of room for my veggies without rodents snacking on roots. LOL Anyway, I appreciate your feedback. My intuition is that the loam/organic mix I'm getting (it's about 30% loam and 70% organic matter) is going to be great. -k
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Thanks! As a hypothetical question, how do wood chips suppress weeds? If I had wood chips, should I be putting down newspaper/cardboard/landscape fabric under them too? I thought they supressed weeds by creating a surface, an upper/top surface, that any seeds that blew onto it couldn't grow on, because the surface was wood. But I wonder if you're saying that the weeds I need to worry about are coming from underneath, up through the mulch? In which case, is there anything about wood chips that stops that better than compost? Like the robbing-nitrogen-from-the-soil stuff I've heard about wood chips?
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Kimmsr
14 years ago
What is your soil like now? Clay? Sand? Loam? Gravel?
What is your soils pH?
How well does that soil drain?
How well does that soil retain moisture?
What kind of life is in that soil?
How much organic matter is in your soil?
Does it hold together when squeezed but fall apart readily?
PKponder TX Z7B
14 years ago
Hi Nik, just wanted to give you a heads up if you are planning to buy from Superior Topsoil...it will be clay! I bought 5 yards of compost(25%)and sandy loam(75%) and it ended up being the same clay I was attempting to improve. Very frustrating!

Pam
granburyflowergirl
Original Author
14 years ago
Kimmsr, I just got my internet back so I am going to find the thread with your soil analysis advice and work on figuring that all out now.

Thanks for the heads up Pam, I wont go there! I went to Eagle Stone and looked at their stuff first (good thing too because I wanted topsoil but their "topsoil" turned out to be just sand).

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