cheapest place to get top soil

[BrokenBiker]

after the recent bad weather my garden is looking rather woefull.

i want to level it all off and turf it so need to source some cheap soil for it.

the only major problem would be if it is delivered in ton bags they will have to be dropped at the front of the house and carted through as there is no access to my garden.

i estimate needing around 2 ton

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Try a wanted message on Freecycle.
If you buy some cheap Coroplast / Correx sheets off eBay they will protect the house floor if you want to barrow soil through.

Paul h

 

[BrokenBiker]

Try a wanted message on Freecycle.
If you buy some cheap Coroplast / Correx sheets off eBay they will protect the house floor if you want to barrow soil through.

Paul h

i have a post up on freecycle bur its been there a while now and no responses

 

[clarkey31]

have you tried british soil or neil soil. british soil can supply you with turf aswell

 

[Pete.]

If you're leveling topsoil don't make the mistake of thinking you can roll it flat - you can't. I did this last year and it was a lot of work but the results were very satisfying. I laid a path first, and fitted fence panels then used the path and the gravel boards as references to level the lawn. I got hold of some long timbers and make a scraper from a 4x2 and a thumper from some 6x3 with a couple of makeshift handles. I got an old shopping trolley and lined it with rabbit hutch mesh then bolted an old electric motor to it with a pulley that I welded a weight onto to make the trolley shake, then used that to sieve all my topsoil, got 6 bags of stones and a lot of junk and broken glass out of it - I never knew there could be so much rubbish hidden in the dirt. I raked the topsoil flat, scraped it off then thumped it down with the large timber about 20mm below the path level. If you don't thump it so much you should leave it a bit higher but I found that thumping it down well showed up bumps and low spots that you couldn't see otherwise, but would surely have shown up when it was mowed.

 

[brightspark]

after the recent bad weather my garden is looking rather woefull.

i want to level it all off and turf it so need to source some cheap soil for it.

the only major problem would be if it is delivered in ton bags they will have to be dropped at the front of the house and carted through as there is no access to my garden.

i estimate needing around 2 ton

have u rotovated it 1st. ive just turfed a garden and the soil was compacted so hard i thought i needed more dug and rotovated it and it turned out i didnt need any .just leveled it and turfed . water every day for a week . then every 2 days for a few weeks when roots have knitted and grass growing cut it and give it a going over with a garden roller

 

[BrokenBiker]

i pretty much just want to scatter it about to make it more level than it is now. IM not looking for perfectly flat as its only the dog that goes out there unless i need the space for framing up a gate.

plus its not my house so i don't want to spend a great amount and do a full landscape job.

i will be taking a bush out this week, then getting some wood in and making a frame in order to concrete the bottom portion to put a shed on. Then will be covering the rest with soil until it fairly level then putting down rolls of turf.

 

[BrokenBiker]

have u rotovated it 1st. ive just turfed a garden and the soil was compacted so hard i thought i needed more dug and rotovated it and it turned out i didnt need any .just leveled it and turfed

i don't have a rotovator, and i don't think i would get one into the garden

 

[Welderpaul]

Builders Merchants do top soil.
I've bought it on a few occasions. Horrible stuff to dig out of dumpy bags though; always slash the side to get it out easier.

 

[brightspark]

Builders Merchants do top soil.
I've bought it on a few occasions. Horrible stuff to dig out of dumpy bags though; always slash the side to get it out easier.

get em to deliver it with hiab crane over where u want it and slit bottom of bag

 

[BrokenBiker]

get em to deliver it with hiab crane over where u want it and slit bottom of bag

no access to the rear of the garden. Have to go through the house

 

[shed or dead]

Not sure if it's just a local trend but many of the farm run veggie vendors at our local market advertise top soil for sale.

Could be worth an ask round your local market. IIRC 40 quid per ton seems to be the going rate, inc delivery.

 

[awemawson]

Well I had several thousand tons in last year to finish off the last 1/4 acre of a 3/4 acre area that we raised 30" to be above the flood level (the first 1/2 acre took two 14 ton dumpers and a big 360 excavator ten days of 8 hour days clearing out our stream and ditches four years ago)

We scraped it level with the 360 then harrowed and seeded it. I shudder to think how long it would have taken using the 'guide board' method !!!!!

The sheep seem happy enough with it

 

[Pete.]

Yeah well you don't have to keep my wife happy Andrew

 

[brewdexta]

I use Tommy Topsoil however your probably better to find a local supplier, if your stuck they will put 1 tonne bags on pallets for palletline but its got to be cheaper locally, Paul's suggestion of the builders merchants sounds favourite. You may get lucky if you know some builders that do groundwork.

 

[Wedg1e]

no access to the rear of the garden. Have to go through the house

Bigger crane?

 

[Wedg1e]

I never knew there could be so much rubbish hidden in the dirt.

Nursy had her rear garden landscaped a couple of years back, the supposedly reputable landscape gardners brought in topsoil that was so bad most of the new plants they put in died. When I dug a big hole to plant a new tree it absolutely stank, I've been near fresher sewage farms. Christ only knows what is in it, I've stopped looking too closely. Looks like they'd excavated someone elses back garden that had corpses and engine oil buried in it (this might not be too wide of the mark, thinking about it) and just dumped the spoil at Nursy's pad.

 

[brightspark]

i got a load dumped in me 6 x4 half ton trailer by a farmer friend free with a big loading shovel namely a tonne the tires went nearly flat and the van hardly pulled it . fortunately no dammage

 

[awemawson]

BTW note to O/P : Be aware the 'tonne bags' don't usually hold a full tonne. 600 kg is nearer the mark for dry topsoil. Even pea shingle is only about 700 kgs

 

[Paul99]

Nursy had her rear garden landscaped a couple of years back, the supposedly reputable landscape gardners brought in topsoil that was so bad most of the new plants they put in died. When I dug a big hole to plant a new tree it absolutely stank, I've been near fresher sewage farms. Christ only knows what is in it, I've stopped looking too closely. Looks like they'd excavated someone elses back garden that had corpses and engine oil buried in it (this might not be too wide of the mark, thinking about it) and just dumped the spoil at Nursy's pad.

Anaerobic bacteria in waterlogged soil can stink like you wouldn't believe - the lack of aeration in the soil will kill just about everything. Back when I worked for a ground maintenance company we had several golf courses to keep us busy - a few greens were very very poorly drained - it was an absolute nightmare to get grass to grow let alone have it looking good. Every other month we used to have to aerate the soil using a vertidrainer to pull out evenly spaced soil cores maybe half inch round and 6" deep then back fill the holes with sand to try and improve areation - probably used around about a tonne of sand per green more on the bigger ones. The stink was horrendous - like you say like raw sewage. All the pulled cores were collected and put in a compost heap to break down and eventually form very high quality top soil.

Maybe asking a few mini digger drivers in your area will get you somewhere too - I've only just started work on a soil screener myself as just from the small amount of digger work we do we end up with a lot of soil that get's wasted when theres too much rubble to sort by hand.