Anyone know of any companies that sell GOOD and cheap bagged
topsoil/fill?? Almost everyone near me has the "Scotts Premium Topsoil"
for around $2 bucks a bag, but the stuff is crap!! I bought some last
year, and when I opened the bag, it wasn't even dirt/soil, or was more
like all mulch and peat!!! TONS of sticks and mulch in there, even
though the bag says "contains no sticks", the stuff is junk!!


Home Depot sells some generic topsoil for about $1.50 a bag, but that
stuff sucks as well. The dirt is always wet, and smelly, and loaded with
debris like ieces of plastic, rocks, etc, etc. Same with the "Ace
Hardware" topsoil which is about $3 bucks a bag, the stuff is wet,
smelly, and loaded with debris.


The "Garden Centers" near me have good brands like organic "Fosters",
"Fafard", "Moo Moo Dirt" and "Lobster Compost", the problem is they are
like $5 - $8 bucks per bag!!


In my yard, the former owners, many years ago had a very long flower bed
on the side of the house. When we moved in, there were no flowers there.
It is all grass now. The problem is, there is a big long deep rut there
now where the flower bed was. The ditch/rut is about 30 feet LONG, 2-3
feet WIDE, and about 1-2 feet DEEP.


We want to fill this in, because when it rains the rut fills with water.
When you mow the lawn there, the mower scalps the grass on the sides of
the rut/ditch. I know the best way to fill this in, would be to just
call a landscaping company and have a truck full of topsoil/loam dumped.


The problem is, I have a small driveway with 3 cars parked in it, and a
small front yard with a busy public sidewalk with people and kids
walking by all day because of an elementary school down the street. I
don't think the city would be happy with a big pile of dirt dumped on
the public City sidewalk. So unfortunately, looks like the only way to
ever fix this myself ( without paying landscapers to use a wheelbarrow
to move the soil from their truck parked in the street to the ditch/rut,
is to buy bagged topsoil.


I don't want to use the crappy $2 dollar a bag "Scotts" which is like
85% mulch and peat moss, but also don't want to spend like $7 bucks a
bag for the organic stuff at the Garden Center. Should I just use the
cheap $1.50 stuff at Home Depot to fill the ditch/rut, and then just
spread a few bags of the good organic stuff on the top??


Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet deep,
I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?

"MICHELLE H." wrote in message
...
Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet deep,
I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?


I don't know how the topsoil will pack down,but you beter buy 2 or 3 bags of
the cheap stuff and put it on one place in that hole. It will probably look
like you did not put any in at all. I put 45 bags of ready mix cement in a
hole that was only 3 feet each way.
I don't recall how much the dirt I took out covered as I filled in a few
small places in the yard, but I did this over several weeks.

MICHELLE H. wrote:
Anyone know of any companies that sell GOOD and cheap bagged
topsoil/fill?? Almost everyone near me has the "Scotts Premium
Topsoil" for around $2 bucks a bag, but the stuff is crap!! I bought
some last year, and when I opened the bag, it wasn't even dirt/soil,
or was more like all mulch and peat!!! TONS of sticks and mulch in
there, even though the bag says "contains no sticks", the stuff is
junk!!


Home Depot sells some generic topsoil for about $1.50 a bag, but that
stuff sucks as well. The dirt is always wet, and smelly, and loaded
with debris like ieces of plastic, rocks, etc, etc. Same with the "Ace
Hardware" topsoil which is about $3 bucks a bag, the stuff is wet,
smelly, and loaded with debris.


The "Garden Centers" near me have good brands like organic "Fosters",
"Fafard", "Moo Moo Dirt" and "Lobster Compost", the problem is they
are like $5 - $8 bucks per bag!!


In my yard, the former owners, many years ago had a very long flower
bed on the side of the house. When we moved in, there were no flowers
there. It is all grass now. The problem is, there is a big long deep
rut there now where the flower bed was. The ditch/rut is about 30
feet LONG, 2-3 feet WIDE, and about 1-2 feet DEEP.


We want to fill this in, because when it rains the rut fills with
water. When you mow the lawn there, the mower scalps the grass on the
sides of the rut/ditch. I know the best way to fill this in, would be
to just call a landscaping company and have a truck full of
topsoil/loam dumped.


The problem is, I have a small driveway with 3 cars parked in it, and
a small front yard with a busy public sidewalk with people and kids
walking by all day because of an elementary school down the street. I
don't think the city would be happy with a big pile of dirt dumped on
the public City sidewalk. So unfortunately, looks like the only way to
ever fix this myself ( without paying landscapers to use a wheelbarrow
to move the soil from their truck parked in the street to the
ditch/rut, is to buy bagged topsoil.


I don't want to use the crappy $2 dollar a bag "Scotts" which is like
85% mulch and peat moss, but also don't want to spend like $7 bucks a
bag for the organic stuff at the Garden Center. Should I just use the
cheap $1.50 stuff at Home Depot to fill the ditch/rut, and then just
spread a few bags of the good organic stuff on the top??


Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet
deep, I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?

Instead of looking at filling it with dirt, you could just buy some sod to
put on top of the rut area. Sod already comes pre-cut with top soil where
the roots are. You put it on top of the existing grass and knock the dirt
loose as you lay it out and make sure you water it in. The new sod will
take root and the grass under it will either die and be useful grass food or
it'll grown right through the new sod.

--
Natural Girl

MICHELLE H. wrote:
Anyone know of any companies that sell GOOD and cheap bagged
topsoil/fill?? Almost everyone near me has the "Scotts Premium
Topsoil" for around $2 bucks a bag, but the stuff is crap!! I bought
some last year, and when I opened the bag, it wasn't even dirt/soil,
or was more like all mulch and peat!!! TONS of sticks and mulch in
there, even though the bag says "contains no sticks", the stuff is
junk!!


Home Depot sells some generic topsoil for about $1.50 a bag, but that
stuff sucks as well. The dirt is always wet, and smelly, and loaded
with debris like ieces of plastic, rocks, etc, etc. Same with the "Ace
Hardware" topsoil which is about $3 bucks a bag, the stuff is wet,
smelly, and loaded with debris.


The "Garden Centers" near me have good brands like organic "Fosters",
"Fafard", "Moo Moo Dirt" and "Lobster Compost", the problem is they
are like $5 - $8 bucks per bag!!


In my yard, the former owners, many years ago had a very long flower
bed on the side of the house. When we moved in, there were no flowers
there. It is all grass now. The problem is, there is a big long deep
rut there now where the flower bed was. The ditch/rut is about 30
feet LONG, 2-3 feet WIDE, and about 1-2 feet DEEP.


We want to fill this in, because when it rains the rut fills with
water. When you mow the lawn there, the mower scalps the grass on the
sides of the rut/ditch. I know the best way to fill this in, would be
to just call a landscaping company and have a truck full of
topsoil/loam dumped.


The problem is, I have a small driveway with 3 cars parked in it, and
a small front yard with a busy public sidewalk with people and kids
walking by all day because of an elementary school down the street. I
don't think the city would be happy with a big pile of dirt dumped on
the public City sidewalk. So unfortunately, looks like the only way to
ever fix this myself ( without paying landscapers to use a wheelbarrow
to move the soil from their truck parked in the street to the
ditch/rut, is to buy bagged topsoil.


I don't want to use the crappy $2 dollar a bag "Scotts" which is like
85% mulch and peat moss, but also don't want to spend like $7 bucks a
bag for the organic stuff at the Garden Center. Should I just use the
cheap $1.50 stuff at Home Depot to fill the ditch/rut, and then just
spread a few bags of the good organic stuff on the top??


Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet
deep, I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?

Just find a bulk topsoil dealer and have them deliver a yard or 2. You can look
at what they have before you buy.

Thanks for all the great answers. Yeah, this looks to be a BIG job. The
old guy who lived in the house before us had hardly any grass at all.
From what I understand from neighbors, is that he had a HUGE vegetable
garden in the backyard, and flowers all on the side of the house, and in
the front yard. Neighbors said that the whole front yard was ALL
entirely flowers, no grass!! He hardly had any grass at all. When he
passed away, no one cared for the flowers, and grass and weeds grew
everywhere.


One of the neighbors said that on the property line with the next door
neighbor, instead of putting up a fence like most people, he had a
flower bed that ran down about 50 - 60 feet on the side of the house
that seperated the 2 yards.


So this is the reason why there is now a long rut there. I guess he
filled in about 30 feet of the rut though, because he planted "Rose Of
Sharon" bushes on the property line when he was getting older and
couldn't take care of so many flowers. The neighbors said he had about 2
or 3 truckloads of "loam" delivered to the yard.


I'm just wondering, why did he make the flower bed so deep!? It's not
just 30 feet long, and 1-2 feet wide, but deep as well, about 1-2 feet!!
I assume he must have dug out all the soil, and probably used it for his
garden in the backyard??

MICHELLE H. wrote:

....
I don't want to use the crappy $2 dollar a bag "Scotts" which is like
85% mulch and peat moss, but also don't want to spend like $7 bucks a
bag for the organic stuff at the Garden Center. Should I just use the
cheap $1.50 stuff at Home Depot to fill the ditch/rut, and then just
spread a few bags of the good organic stuff on the top??


Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet deep,
I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?


that's a lot more money than you'd spend
bringing in fill by the yard, often the company
can bring it in a container so that you don't
have "piles of stuff laying around" issues.

call around and see what you can find. calls
are cheap.

best thing is to use poorer grade fill for
a deep hole and then to top it with better
grade soil that can support grass. the
difference in price can be worth it. also
if you are going to have grass there make sure
the topsoil is deep enough including after it
settles to support the grass otherwise within
a few years you get thin grass and more weeds
and other troubles.

is this area eroded from water coming off
the house or some place else? where did the
soil go? seems rather strange to have a
trench, but perhaps it works as a water catch?
a good to leave or reshape so that when it
gets mowed the mower doesn't slice the grass
off the soil along the edges.


songbird

On 4/9/2013 1:20 PM, MICHELLE H. wrote:
Thanks for all the great answers. Yeah, this looks to be a BIG job. The
old guy who lived in the house before us had hardly any grass at all.
From what I understand from neighbors, is that he had a HUGE vegetable
garden in the backyard, and flowers all on the side of the house, and in
the front yard. Neighbors said that the whole front yard was ALL
entirely flowers, no grass!! He hardly had any grass at all. When he
passed away, no one cared for the flowers, and grass and weeds grew
everywhere.


One of the neighbors said that on the property line with the next door
neighbor, instead of putting up a fence like most people, he had a
flower bed that ran down about 50 - 60 feet on the side of the house
that seperated the 2 yards.


So this is the reason why there is now a long rut there. I guess he
filled in about 30 feet of the rut though, because he planted "Rose Of
Sharon" bushes on the property line when he was getting older and
couldn't take care of so many flowers. The neighbors said he had about 2
or 3 truckloads of "loam" delivered to the yard.


I'm just wondering, why did he make the flower bed so deep!? It's not
just 30 feet long, and 1-2 feet wide, but deep as well, about 1-2 feet!!
I assume he must have dug out all the soil, and probably used it for his
garden in the backyard??

Rough calculation of your worst case measurements is about 20 yards of
top soil. That is getting close to a truck load. Would search around
and buy it that way from a local vendor. It will be less expensive to
buy in bulk and you will have the opportunity to look at it prior to
purchase.

On 4/9/2013 10:18 AM, MICHELLE H. wrote:
Anyone know of any companies that sell GOOD and cheap bagged
topsoil/fill?? Almost everyone near me has the "Scotts Premium Topsoil"
for around $2 bucks a bag, but the stuff is crap!! I bought some last
year, and when I opened the bag, it wasn't even dirt/soil, or was more
like all mulch and peat!!! TONS of sticks and mulch in there, even
though the bag says "contains no sticks", the stuff is junk!!

How the bagging process works: there's a huge mound of soil piled up
on the ground. A bobcat operator scoops up bucketsful of the soil and
dumps it into a hopper, from which it eventually ends up in bags.
Here's the thing: when the bobcat gets to the last of the soil, it is
scraping junk off the ground along with the remaining soil, and it
ends up in the bags. So it's the luck of the draw. Most bags will not
have the junk in it, but the bags that were filled from the last of
the dirt mound probably will. Buy a few bags elsewhere and they'll
almost certainly be fine.

Home Depot sells some generic topsoil for about $1.50 a bag, but that
stuff sucks as well. The dirt is always wet, and smelly, and loaded with
debris like ieces of plastic, rocks, etc, etc. Same with the "Ace
Hardware" topsoil which is about $3 bucks a bag, the stuff is wet,
smelly, and loaded with debris.

Do you think that for that price the product is going to be sifted,
and dried, and hermetically sealed? No. It won't.

The "Garden Centers" near me have good brands like organic "Fosters",
"Fafard", "Moo Moo Dirt" and "Lobster Compost", the problem is they are
like $5 - $8 bucks per bag!!

You've been given the best solution on alt.home.repair, you just
didn't like what you were told: hire a company to deliver a truckload
of soil, and either have them do the labor involved with moving and
dumping it into your fill site, or hire another company to do the
labor for you, or do it yourself.

In my yard, the former owners, many years ago had a very long flower bed
on the side of the house. When we moved in, there were no flowers there.
It is all grass now. The problem is, there is a big long deep rut there
now where the flower bed was. The ditch/rut is about 30 feet LONG, 2-3
feet WIDE, and about 1-2 feet DEEP.

If it is that deep, it was constructed that deep for a reason. Most
often the reason is drainage. It was probably designed to be a runoff
channel for water from your property and adjacent properties to drain
into, thus keeping the surrounding land reasonably dry and firm, not
marshy and spongy.

It would be a good idea to talk to any long-term residents of the
neighborhood to find out what they know about that ditch. You should
also contact your city. If it is a mandated runoff channel, odds are
you cannot legally fill it in. You might be able to install a culvert
and then fill in around the culvert. You really don't know, which is
why you should call your city first. If they give you the all clear,
you can do whatever you want. But be warned - if it is a runoff
channel and you fill it in, you or your neighbors properties may end
up turning (back) into swampy or spongy land.

Case in point: a neighbor of mine installed a culvert in a 'drainage
ditch' (actually a creek) on his property, then filled it in. Since
doing that, he has a major water problem in his basement every time it
rains. Formerly, the excess water on his property drained into the
creek. But he filled the creek in, and with no place to go, the water
sits on his property, makes his yard soggy wet for days after every
rain, and winds up in his basement.

The problem is, I have a small driveway with 3 cars parked in it, and a
small front yard with a busy public sidewalk with people and kids
walking by all day because of an elementary school down the street. I
don't think the city would be happy with a big pile of dirt dumped on
the public City sidewalk.

A 40 lb bag of topsoil is approximately .5 cubic foot. The area you
want to fill will require approximately 5-6 cubic yards of fill. There
are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. So: 2 bags of topsoil per cubic
foot, 54 bags of topsoil per cubic yard. You'll need to buy between
270 and 324 bags of topsoil. Multiply that by the price per bag. And
think about how you are going to get all those bags home. How many
trips in your car will it take? Sure, you can pay for delivery - but
it'll cost you a lot more.

Now call your local landscape firm and ask how much they'd charge to
deliver 6 cubic feet of fill dirt, and how much extra they'd charge to
move it and dump it in your desired location. I can practically
guarantee that it won't cost much more than what you'd pay for all
those bags of topsoil - and you won't have to do any of the work.

I don't want to use the crappy $2 dollar a bag "Scotts" which is like
85% mulch and peat moss,

Why do you care, if it's only going to be used for fill? If you aren't
going to garden there, it makes little difference.

Because this thing being 30 feet long, 2-3 feet wide, and 1-2 feet deep,
I probably need like 50 bags of topsoil!?

You've got to be trolling.

On 4/10/2013 9:13 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:

Now call your local landscape firm and ask how much they'd charge to
deliver 6 cubic feet

Not feet, YARDS.

Also, it's not a bad idea to order a little extra to account for
settling, or to use for other projects around the yard. Companies
often will deliver for free with the purchase of a minimum volume of
material, so if you only need to increase your order by another yard
or two to get free delivery, it might be worth going that route.

Just to get an accurate measurement, I went out there today with a tape
measure, and measured the entire rut in the lawn, and boy was I WAY
OFF!!!!!!! The rut is about 40 feet long, not 30 feet long. It is 3 feet
wide, not 2 feet wide. And it is roughly about 4 inches deep, not 1-2
feet deep. The depth varies in differnt spots. In one spot it was about
3 inches deeper than the rest of the lawn. In another spot it was 3 and
1/2 inches deeper. In another spot it was 4 inches deeper than the rest
of the lawn. So the entire rut is about 3-4 inches deep.

The reason I originally said it was 1-2 feet deep is because that's how
deep it feels when your standing in it!!!!


But using a tape measure, the more accurate measurement is actually 40
feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3-4 inches deep.


Is this still impossible and too expensive to fill with bags of topsoil
bought at retail?

MICHELLE H. wrote:
Just to get an accurate measurement, I went out there today with a
tape measure, and measured the entire rut in the lawn, and boy was I
WAY OFF!!!!!!! The rut is about 40 feet long, not 30 feet long. It is
3 feet wide, not 2 feet wide. And it is roughly about 4 inches deep,
not 1-2 feet deep. The depth varies in differnt spots. In one spot it
was about 3 inches deeper than the rest of the lawn. In another spot
it was 3 and 1/2 inches deeper. In another spot it was 4 inches
deeper than the rest of the lawn. So the entire rut is about 3-4
inches deep.

The reason I originally said it was 1-2 feet deep is because that's
how deep it feels when your standing in it!!!!


But using a tape measure, the more accurate measurement is actually 40
feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3-4 inches deep.


Is this still impossible and too expensive to fill with bags of
topsoil bought at retail?

It would still be less expensive to buy bulk topsoil. That's about 40 cu ft, or
about 1.5 cubic yard. You could buy bagged soil, but it will cost you a lot
more. Before you buy anything, at least price soil at a bulk dealer. Ask at
nearby nurseries for where to get that much bulk soil, or look up topsoil in the
yellow pages.

On Apr 10, 8:36*pm, (MICHELLE H.) wrote:
Just to get an accurate measurement, I went out there today with a tape
measure, and measured the entire rut in the lawn, and boy was I WAY
OFF!!!!!!! The rut is about 40 feet long, not 30 feet long. It is 3 feet
wide, not 2 feet wide. And it is roughly about 4 inches deep, not 1-2
feet deep. The depth varies in differnt spots. In one spot it was about
3 inches deeper than the rest of the lawn. In another spot it was 3 and
1/2 inches deeper. In another spot it was 4 inches deeper than the rest
of the lawn. So the entire rut is about 3-4 inches deep.

The reason I originally said it was 1-2 feet deep is because that's how
deep it feels when your standing in it!!!!

But using a tape measure, the more accurate measurement is actually 40
feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3-4 inches deep.

Is this still impossible and too expensive to fill with bags of topsoil
bought at retail?

Are you totally incapable of some very basic math?

Okay, thanks! Plus, if I buy a truckload of soil, I can see the soil
when it's delievered. Because buying it retail at the store, and in a
bag, you don't know whats in there!? The $1.49 stuff at Home Depot is
usually all wet, heavy, and smelly, loaded with debris and rocks. The
"Scotts: Premium" is mostly all peat moss and mulch, and the organic
topsoil at the garden center is usually light and fluffy even though
it's in a "40 pound" bag.


Plus, I can probably only get 5 bags at a time in the car, so thats ALOT
of trips to the store in the family car!!! I will have to call around to
some landscapers and get some prices of having a truck load of soil
delivered.


Thanks!