[Neal]

I am doing a job where we are making raised berms in a flat yard to be planted with shrubs. To begin we've brought in 16 tandem loads of fill dirt to create the underlying structure. Next I'll do a soil test to see what is lacking. I would like to incorporate about 1/3 compost for tilth and fertility. But, that's alot of compost (about 90 yards, a little less).

Any body have any experience with this kind of thing? Im a little short for ideas and havent yet priced that amount of compost.

Thanks

[TrickyDick]

We have compost around here from $10-70/ yard. Check if there's a municipal compost facility around you can get it from.

[sleepy]

Just ammend the holes. why ammend the whole berm?

[GLAN]

Originally posted by sleepy
Just ammend the holes. why ammend the whole berm?

If you just ammend the holes to provide a nutrient rich environment for the plant and its roots.....then why would the roots want to leave that environment?

Building from scratch.......do the right thing and ammend your entire top soil layer, can even add some ammendments to the sub layer. We do all the time.

Most all our plantings are elevated........I till the existing soil, add peat moss and till again. Then bring in screened top soil, compost and peat moss....that gets all mixed, ready for planting.

Never short cut the soil

[marcus]

Yes I want to know what is the right way to get knew growth on a lawn that was all round up. Wright now it's down to the dirt I know I need top soil seed and starter fertilizer do I need to mix some compost in my soil can someone tell me if I'm on the wright track.

[albert]

about the soil in the berms , about 20 yrs ago we did a job in a rised planting areas , the soil that I ordered was supposed to be topsoil ,instead fill was delivered ,it was yellow sub-base material , well at that time I was stuck and decided to go ahead with the planting , the job called for about 60 plants including Ilex,juniperus ,pinus,abies ,cotoneaster ,etc, I think we only lost 2 items the first year and that was it and the area was a commerical job and only recieved rain watering ,the job is still looking good today ,I say most plants will adapt to the soils ,just stay away from clay type soils,don't get all hung -up on soil admendments.

[Fine Edge]

In some cases the plants will adapt to different types of soil. We have red clay as our standard soil around here and some plants do quite well in it. However, in all of our plantings we will always amend the soil and till in organics. It does make a big difference in how the plants will grow over the years.
In many of our landscape installs, the plants grew almost beyond their stated mature sizes and we have had to transplant some of them to other areas of the yard. We always design for mature shrub height & width and allow for room between plants at maturity. I can tell a big difference between proper soil prep and lack of soil prep.
Especially in residential installs, you don't want to cut corners & hope that the plants will adapt so amend the soil as needed.

[Neal]

Well just so you know. What we ended up doing is doing soil tests on the berm/ fill material. We added lime and phosphorous according to the recommendations from the soil test. Which was about $50 worth of materials. Not much money for being all scientific about it. Then we brought in 50 cu yds of a compost / landscaping mix I found around raliegh, NC. Finedge you might be interested in that stuff found at www.mcgill-leprechaun.com. We layed that on top about 8 inches. We didnt mix it in because this will then give them the black stuff they desire and give us a bed for any perennials.