Xref: kermit rec.gardens:248862

Wow I have never heard of getting topsoil with stones in it! They are
supposed to tell you the percentage of organic (mulch to some) matter that
is in it. This is what is going to give it the dark color and what makes
topsoil what it is. You should be able to take a handful of the soil,
dampen it and squeeze it. If it is too high a percentage of clay (which is
what it sounds like), it will clump together and not come apart. Too high a
percentage of sand and it will not hold at all. A proper mix (of loam,
sand, clay) will hold together but easily break apart... hard to describe.
One of those things that you know it when you see it. I'm sorry but it
sounds as if you were had.
DK


"Jay Chan" wrote in message
om...
I have a couple questions on top soil that is sold in bulk.

I bought a truck-load of top soil in bulk, and I spreaded it over my
lawn. When I saw it on the truck, it looked dark because it was wet.
Therefore, I thought it looked acceptable to me. But now when I
compare it to store-bought top soil from home center, they are quite
different:

- Its color is kind of medium grey. Its color is like concrete
powder when it is dry or when it is wet. The soil from a bag of
Scott Lawn Soil is much darker and with a brown-tune. Their colors
are completely different when I place them side-by-side.

- It contains many stones as large as 3" wide. Cheap store-bought
top soil also contains many stones; but their stones tend to be
much smaller than those I find in the top soil that I bought in
bulk. The Scott Lawn Soil that I bought hardly has any stone in
it. The top soil was supposed to have "well screened".

My questions a

- Is my concrete-powder-colored top soil any good? The salesman told
me that this is just as good as the dark-black top soil. But I
have a hard time believing this.

- How much organic matters in this type of concrete-powder-colored
top soil anyway?

- The good thing is that this top soil seems to be quit easy to
spread. I guess this means it doesn't have a lot of clay. On the
other hand, its color surely looks like a mix of clay and sand.
The clay makes it dark, and the sand makes it easy to spread. Now,
I am wondering what is going to happen if I add water to it. Will
I get concrete out of it?

- What does "well screened" top soil mean? How do they screen top
soil? Do top soil vendors have large machines that have metal
wire screen to screen the top soil? Do they have someone casually
eye-balling a pile of top soil to sort of "screening" the top
soil?

- What is the best way to buy top soil in bulk without running the
risk of getting "something else"? I had already gone to visually
check the top soil before I ordered the top soil, and the salesman
had already written down "DARK!" on the invoice; but I still get
this "stuff". Do I have to go to the nursey to actually see them
loading top soil onto the truck?

Thanks.

Jay Chan