Re: Clay Soil Delivered

[David J Bockman]

Donna,

There's really nothing you can add except organic material.

Dave

Hi All, > I just paid $135.00 for delivery of 5 yds of soil. Looks very red and I > believe it is probably clay (not what I thought I was buying). Anyway, now > that it is delivered, it there anything (besides compost which I don't have > access to) that I can add to the soil before spreading it?. I wanted to use it > to fill in depressions in the lawn and to top dress my very thin existing lawn > and then overseed. Any suggestions for easy spreading? The soil was delivered > with large clods (clumps) throughout. Thanks for any suggestions. > Regards, > Donna >

[J. Lane]

Boy oh boy are you going to have fun now! What did you do? Just phone someone and ask for the soil without checking to see what you were going to get? OK. Quick check on the soil. Go out and grab a handfull. Dampen it and squeeze it. If you can form a long skinny "rope" out of it and it doesn't fall apart, chances are you have clay. You will have to add sand and manure or anything organic( compost, peat moss mixes, whatever) to ammend the soil. And it's going to take money and work to do it...well certainly the work if you can find the manure, compost or sand for free. Next time go out and look at the stuff before you buy!

[mmarteen]

After just buying a bunch of soil myself, it also matters whether you buy pulverized or non-pulverized depending on what you are doing with it. If you are just top dressing a yard or garden get pulverized. If you are using it for filling or grading, get non-pulverized or the clumping kind. since it is more dense.

I would get the soil you bought analyzed before you jump to conclusions and start adding stuff. The squeezing test someone mentioned is a good one. On my lot, the native soil is like modeling clay. With a kiln, I could start my own pottery shop. Don't add too much sand, add Gypsum. Do a search for clay soil on this group and you will get some good advice. For planting holes you can also look into the new clay soil improver from schultz's. It's pricy but claims to speed up the breakdown process. I bought a bag to try myself but won't know until next year whether it worked.

mm

[TOM KAN PA]

I'd tell them to come and get it if you really thought you were buying top soil and was delivered clay.

[David J Bockman]

How did you incorporate it into your existing soil Dave?

Dave

[Dave Gower]

I used my trusty Armstrong Soil Inverter...

otherwise known as a shovel ;