Have you read the threads about "lasagna gardening" with compost and other stuff?

''best'' home made compost, maybe a little vermiculite and coir

If you didn't start planning this last fall you could get by w/ purchased compost, best bet would be to find a place that delivers by the yard, figure out how much you'll need and get it brought to you.

A good garden soil would be composed of about 45 percent mineral (the sand, silt, clay particles) 25 percent water, 25 percent air, and 5 percent organic matter. You already have all the mineral part necessary in that equation so what you need to do is add lots of organic matter, and when you do the rest will simply fall into place. These simple soil tests can help you do this,
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Finding earthworms in your soil isn't necessary depending on what part of the country you're in.

I would just add organic matter and compost to what is already there instead of over paying for "top soil" or even "garden soil".

kimmsr's advice above, while helpful, is not correct in its terms, what he/she calls structure is really texture. Another way to help determine texture is the hand ribbon test which starts on page 19 of the lin provided.

Technically, structure is the way the soil aggregates due to soil forming processes. Examples include blocky structure, platy structure, single grain structure, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: ribbon test

Thanks for the link piedmontnc. It's snowing today and that will take up the day.

As to the OP, I would follow most people's advise and add composted organic material. Since you are growing vegetables, you will also need to fertilize based on the crop needs. Some vegetables manage poorer soils than others.

Here is some fun math, hope I got it right. let's say you have a nice loam soil with a bulk density of 1.3g/cc and 1% organic matter. Per square foot (7" deep), how much organic matter would you have to add to raise the OM to 2%? I get about 0.46 lb..

michael357, put the following text (no quotes) into regular Google and see what you get

1 square foot x 7 inches x 1.3 grams per cubic centimeter x 1% in pounds

That's new to me - Google calculator. It also does the conversion. What a world we live in!

Wouldn't the OM fraction have a bulk density less than the soil bulk density? The soil bulk density includes porosity, the OM bulk desity, the mineral fraction (sand, silt and clay) bulk density. The water fraction has been removed.

I suppose that compost would be the closest thing to just OM that you are going to find. So now you need the bulk density of compost.

A 5 gal. bucket is a 20 litre bucket. Use metric calculations since the math is much, much simpler.

Only Albania, Liberia and the good ol' US of A have not gone metric.

Here is a link that might be useful: SOIL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Don't know about the original poster but my eyes are glazing over at some of these answers. IMO gardening doesn't have to be quite so complicated as some seem to think as humans have been doing it quite successfully for a very long time.

Original question tho does beg more explanation. What type of soil is on your property? What are you planning to plant/grow? What amendments for building soil do you have available in your local area? I ask this because where I live I really have to look to find what I want to make compost and build good soil. Not everyone lives in cities where everything is easily available. I'm not very knowledgeable about zone 8 but you may be wanting to plant earlier than I do in zone 3 so perhaps you don't have a lot of time to complete this.

So if you need more info please advise.

dchall: the world is ever full of wonders! Because %OM in soils is so often mentioned in this forum, particularly the addition of it, I thought it'd be interesting to shed a little light on how much it takes to change a soil's %OM by adding OM. I did my calculations starting with an acre-furrow-slice @ 2,000,000 pounds and went from there, hence the 7" depth. I like your method too.

michael357,

Soil science courses usually give the furrow depth as 6". This of course is a convenient depth for calculation but gives a bulk density of 1.47 gms/cc. The majority of medium textured soils have a bulk density of around 1.3 gms/cc. The number you used.

In order to reconcile the use of 2,000,000 lbs and the more typical soil bulk density, we have to change the furrow depth.

When the concept of the acre furrow slice was first utilized it was based on the average moldboard plough depth of 6-2/3". This provides the 2,000,000 lb value with the more realistic bulk density value.

You will have to go to The Nature and Properties of Soils by T.L. Lyon and H.O. Buckman, 1922, The MacMillan Company, New York which gives the depth of a furrow slice as 6-2/3".

You cannot calculate the furrow depth. It's an independent variable.

Now for those of you who consider this a pointless academic exercise, you are correct. But never the less, it is very interesting.

But knowing that an acre of typical soil weights 2,000,000 lbs is very useful. It will allow you to do mental math and really impress people.

For example, a soil analysis says that there is 20 ppm of nitrate nitrogen in a soil sample. This is 40 ppm per 2,000,000 or 40 lbs/acre. Knowing that an acre is 43,560 sq ft, you can calculate how much there is in you garden, if that's where the soil sample came from.