Soil quality (under the parking lot)
Tristan
2 months ago
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fawnridge (Ricky)
2 months agofour (9B near 9A)
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoRelated Discussions
Need lots of soil for increased garden size - will this idea work
Comments (37)Andrew, Absolutely go out and purchase some good quality soil to fill those beds, in addition to any organic matter you can scrounge up. As was previously stated, the mineral component is the skeleton of the soil. While organic matter is important for buffer capacity, water holding, nutrition, structure, etc., it is still just a part of the whole soil system. You've got to remember that the organic fraction is continually lost through mineralization. When the majority of your soil is organic matter, this results in significant loss of soil volume annually. Thus, you must add significant amounts of organic matter annually. Filling your beds with good, purchased soil will provide a near permanent skeleton for your soil, to which you can add organic matter till your heart's content. Another advantage to filling with purchased mineral soil is faster heating in the spring. Compared to organic matter, the mineral component has a higher heat conductivity that permits faster warming in the spring. Warmer soil earlier will allow earlier planting. You may also be able to find good silt loam depending upon your location in PA. If you're lucky enough to find it, silt loam provides the greatest plant available water holding capacity of nearly all soil textural classes (maybe all I forget off-hand.) Be extremely picky with what you buy and check it out for yourself. Whatever you buy, you'll be stuck gardening in it unless you dig it out and replace it. Further, check out what you're buying before the fact. My sister bought "screened" soil with clumps of clay in it. Use the 'feel method' for determining soil texture to see for yourself what the texture is like. It takes some practice to calibrate your fingers, but becomes a handy skill once you get the hang of it. Good luck, and update us on how you're doing. Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Texture by Feel...See MoreParking lot Tree ID
Comments (19)The people who planted trees at my Walmart are pretty dumb and were all out for the money. They planted Overcup oaks (Q. lyrata) which are not well adapted here (alkaline soil and water) and they leaf out a month later than everything else. They also planted Live oaks about 5 feet apart from each other then replaced one after someone hit it. Then someone hit the other one. It goes on and on..... Sounds like a failure of land-use regulation and tree standards to me. wrt the elm foto upthread, often what happens with these developers is they slap in the cheapest stock they can get, so not only do you get the extra heat in the parking lot making things tough, you get suboptimal trees being slapped in to compacted soil. Parking lots are one of my pet peeves. Dan...See MoreGarden plot over old parking lot.
Comments (2)Most people are suggesting that you drive 24" of rebar into the ground and then slip conduit over about 24" of exposed rebar. If you take a 48" length of rebar and drive down 24" you should get a fairly stable dowel to anchor your trellis. Have you dug down to verify the depth to the supposed parking lot? What pavement material was used? If the parking lot was paved with asphalt, you can probably pound rebar through and get a very stable trellis anchor. If it is concrete, you will need to drill through or bust out the concrete in the area you want the trellis anchored. Hope this helps....See MoreWhat to do with poor quality soil in front yard?
Comments (6)If there is indeed a layer of compacted gravel under where the pavers were, I agree you'd want to remove that. Quickest way would be a dozer to scrape soil off and stockpile, then remove the gravel and dispose, then put the soil back. Once that soil is all broken up, they could use something like a landscape rake to pull out bricks and rocks. Now, if the debris is really bad, you could have topsoil hauled in, but it comes down to the cost of remediating the soil you have vs. paying to haul it off plus paying for new topsoil and the hauling and labor to put it down. Contractors can tell you the best way to go. If you stick with the soil you have and clean it up a bit, then bring in some loads of compost to mix into it as the final step. That would also bring the grade back up and compensate for whatever is removed during the cleanup. Get more than one estimate if you're paying to have it done....See MoreJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
2 months agosultry_jasmine_nights (Florida)
2 months agocarolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
last monthlast modified: last monthJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last monthfour (9B near 9A)
last monthfour (9B near 9A)
last monthlast modified: last month
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