David, if you haven't gone to the garden center for more soil yet, DON'T.
Unless there was something terribly wrong with your soil OTHER THAN SNAILS,
removing it is the worst thing you can do. Put back as much of your old soil
as possible. Why?

1) You have snails not because your soil's bad, but because something else
created an environment they liked. The most likely cause is also something
positive: Mulch. They like to live under vegetation that covers the soil,
like fallen leaves. This same mulch is good for most plants, because it
helps retain moisture, keeps weeds down, and shelters other helpful soil
organisms that you WANT TO HAVE AROUND. So you have to strike a balance you
can live with. If you'd done the beer trick, you could've significantly
lowered the snail population, at least for a season or two. Also helping
with that goal would be removing excessive amounts of surface vegetation,
but not necessarily all of it. Whatever you plant later may need mulch.

2) Soil isn't just SOIL. When undisturbed, there are definite layers of
organic activity - bugs and microorganisms that are good to have around.
This is why, when an experienced gardener sees/feels/smells that his garden
has healthy soil, he doesn't "turn it over". Rather, if the soils a bit
compressed from foot traffic or lack of use, he sticks a garden fork into
the ground and simply twists or rocks the tool, just enough to loosen the
soil. The various layers of the soil world need to remain intact, and I'm
talking about a world which goes down between one and four feet, depending
on the size of the things you're planting.

Unless you are very lucky, the soil you bought is pretty much dead. After a
couple of years of treatment, you can get it back into shape. But, it would
be better if you could put back 6-12" of your original soil.

Other thoughts:
- The "treatment" I mentioned actually entails doing LESS work and buying
LESS stuff to add to the soil. For instance, do you have a lawn? Does your
lawnmower have a bagging option? Every so often, put 2-3" of lawn clippings
on your garden. Sprinkle loosely - you don't want it to turn into that green
slime you get if you put grass clippings into a plastic bag and forget about
it for a couple of days. Keep the clipping a few inches from tiny seedlings,
but it's otherwise beneficial. In a few days, it'll dry to brown and mat
together nicely, which means it won't blow away.

- "Good soil": If you grab a handful, squeeze it, and then crumble it, it
should break apart like a well-made chocolate cake. Not a brownie, not a
cookie. A cake. When you reach this point, you're close to Nirvana. Buy
yourself a 2"x10" wooden board maybe 4 or 6 feet long - whatever's
convenient to move around the yard. It can be cheap wood - it doesn't
matter. If you need to get into the middle of your garden, don't step or
kneel all over it. That'll compress your soil. slide the board into place
like a catwalk. If 2x10 is too wide for your planting, make it a 2x8. This
is a less-than-$10 tool that you'll use for a long time.


"WPB" wrote in message
...
Many thanks to Doug, Frogleg and everyone else for your advice. More than
I asked for and much appreciated! I'll check out that book you mentioned,
Doug.

I don't think I'll have to worry about the snails after all. After about
5
hours backbreaking work digging up the old soil and carting it off and
replacing it with new, fresh soil the snails should be gone. It's amazing
how one can underestimate things when it comes to gardening. It's just a
small plot I'm talking about--maybe 4 by 6 feet. I thought "Oh, it'll
only
take an hour or so to dig the old soil and up replace it. And the 12 bags
of new soil should be plenty. Well, five hours later the 12 bags only
refilled about a third of the plot. So no tulip planting yet.

Back to the garden centre!

Once again, thanks to everyone. I only wish the people in the
alt.animals.raccoons newsgroup had been as knowledgeable when it comes to
advising me how to prevent the raccoons from digging up my new sod
(chicken
wire laid over the sod did the trick).

Happy Gardening!

David in Toronto