Got this area cleaned up and I’m planning to plant mostly roses there. However, the soil is pretty barren and has sat like that for years, so a lot of amending may be needed. How many cubic feet of top soil might I need? Should i do the whole area or just add soil as I plant things?
by dndnametaken
6 Comments
Hi, I would get good garden soil or trimix, which is a mix of topsoil, manure and peat moss. Plants need more nutrients than simply top soil. You don’t need to replace the soil, just dig a hole twice the size of the container of the plant, then add some good soil and plant your plant. When you have planted all your plants, cover the whole area with mulch. Mulch will keep the roots cool and humid, it also avoid weeds from growing.
Before you do any digging be sure to have called 811 or whatever local service to make sure there are no power, gas, or other utility lines in that space.
measure your square feet and use a calculator like on Lowes.com to determine cubic inches. If you have an idea on how deep that space is, it will also give you a quantity # based on that depth.
If you want to only amend the areas you intend to plant, consider an area atleast 2x the size of the pot the plant came in, and depth. can use the same measurements and calculators for volume.
when i put my plants in, personally, i focused on the areas i was planting, dug holes and amended that with compost, top soil, etc, and the rest of the dirt space that didn’t get planted on, got a 3-4in layer of fresh chipped wood mulch. that “unused soil,” is now slowly improving on its own with the breakdown of the mulch. have already applied a second layer. did this throughout in an about 1500sq ft yard
My opinion: search the underground for buried anythings and if they’re not utilities remove them (if they are utilities ask the company to move them). Once you know there’s nothing buried make sure there’s no bits of plastic anywhere, (previous owners here scattered plastic garbage all over the topsoil and it’s hell) you said you cleaned up so I assume it’s all dirt and rocks but you should always pick the plastic out before plants go in. It’s only harder later.
After prep is all done I don’t think you have to cover the area in soil. If it’s all hard compacted clay you may have to soak it and stir it all up bc some plants get root bound in a clay hole as if it were a pot. I’d add wood chips or some other organic matter to disperse clay. I think if you make a nice hole for each rose filled with premium soil they’ll be able to reach out from there to process the soil around them. You can soak the surface and spread it out to make it nice and smooth and spread clippings of sedum around and between the roses. They’ll grow fine on that soil and they’re very pretty.
My opinion: search the underground for buried anythings and if they’re not utilities remove them (if they are utilities ask the company to move them). Once you know there’s nothing buried make sure there’s no bits of plastic anywhere, (previous owners here scattered plastic garbage all over the topsoil and it’s hell) you said you cleaned up so I assume it’s all dirt and rocks but you should always pick the plastic out before plants go in. It’s only harder later.
After prep is all done I don’t think you have to cover the area in soil. If it’s all hard compacted clay you may have to soak it and stir it all up bc some plants get root bound in a clay hole as if it were a pot. I’d add wood chips or some other organic matter to disperse clay. I think if you make a nice hole for each rose filled with premium soil they’ll be able to reach out from there to process the soil around them. You can soak the surface and spread it out to make it nice and smooth and spread clippings of sedum around and between the roses. They’ll grow fine on that soil and they’re very pretty.
Not a Gardner but I do hard scaping. If flooding/standing water isn’t a issue the ur good. Maybe add in a stone or paver border, some thick grass and design and layout ur flower bed. Could use sod or turf if u don’t wanna seed it.
None, mix in some compost and fertilizer