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jojobar_gw

super soil not so super?

12 years ago

I hired a landscaper to create border beds in my back yard. I wanted to do it myself, but don't have the time. They dumped "super soil" in the bed areas, and I noticed several sharp pieces of plastic, some glass, and lots of plastic bag pieces. It's dark in color, but it seems to have a very high percentage of sand, with some shredded bark, but it has no body. Also, the "sand" is weird. It sparkles, and it feels more like powdered glass. The stuff hasn't been incorporated yet, and I have a really bad feeling about it. Any thoughts?

Comments (7)

  • 12 years ago

    It is always amazing what people will plunk down as "soil". I would do this simple test,
    ") Soil test for organic matter. 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. For example, 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. "
    To find out what is in that "soil" and if then ask the "landscaper" about it and if it is not something I like or want have that person remove it and replace it with what I wanted.

  • 12 years ago

    Super Soil used to be great in the 70s, but it has gone way down hill. In fact, my local places don't even carry it. It used to be made by a local company, but they went out of business and Scotts bought the name. Now they make as cheap as they possible can. Like buying health foods at whole food, buying quality soil is very expensive.

  • 12 years ago

    Local companies often market various kinds of soil and they can call it what they want. I doubt the truckloads of whatever the OP got were made by Scotts. We have a co. here that mines silty clay out of a creek bottom and sells "Topsoil", or mixes it with manure and jacks up the price and calls it 'Garden Grow' soil.

    What you have there is probably: sharp sand - which would be sparkly, the particles are not rounded like beach sand, nothing wrong with it and it's probably just what they can get locally; plus compost which is probably made from some combination of yard waste, manure, food scrap etc.; and maybe some shredded bark or wood, either added separately or incompletely composted. The trash sounds very much like the stuff commonly encountered at yard waste dumps.

    It may not be a fabulous soil, but the trash doesn't mean it's necessarily contaminated with anything harmful. And even poor soil can become better with management - as the bark breaks down into compost for example.

    If it's mostly organic matter, keep in mind it's going to shrink considerably.

    If you want to know exactly what's in it, you'll have to ask the vendor what they mix up. If they say 'compost' you'll have to be persistent and ask them who/where that comes from - do they buy it or make it, if they buy it, from who, if they make it, what do they put in. Nothing wrong with asking these questions.

    There's certainly nothing wrong with complaining about the glass and plastic bits. I'd be annoyed too, if I paid for it.

  • 12 years ago

    super soil is a brand name product and it's made by Scotts.

  • 12 years ago

    I don't doubt that, but if you search the web for 'super soil' or 'buy super soil' you'll get a whole host of products, even some fertilizers that are not soil at all. I'm just saying it may or may not be Scotts.

  • 12 years ago

    Scott's does not sell soil products in bulk - only by bags. If it was 'dumped' in quantity, then it is most likely some bulk soil product sold under that name. As tox noted, there are many products sold under that name.

  • 12 years ago

    But, it's not real super soil then, that was a good name back in the 70s it had cred built up and Scotts bought the name and then tried to pull a fast one by substituting inferior and cheaper ingredients.