For many, it's easy and quick, and that is more important than cost. And marketers convince many it is the best route to go. I would include some blog writers among the marketers...many seem to have serious gaps in their gardening knowledge but are quick to mention products that will link to their page and earn them money.

Also, I think many people don't really want to know what is in the soil they are using to grow their food. If someone will sell them a ready to go mix that they think is good, they are happy to hand over their money. If they had to add manure on their own, the whole gardening thing would just be too gross for them. And it's best not to think about what wastes come out of the beneficial insects they try to attract. And certainly don't suggest they fertilize with human urine.

Raised beds are another garden expense many don't need but think they do. There are lots of pricey beds with pricey fill in yards that have well draining soil that would grow veggies with no trouble. If they want raised bed for looks, animal control, or easy access without as much bending that is fine with me. If they have poor soil or lots of rocks and want a quick fix that is fine. Just don't claim it is the best way or only way to garden in all yards.....LOL, I guess you now know my pet peeve.

Happy camper, I see you cross posted in the California Gardening forum. That reminded me that several years ago I read a comment by a soil scientist from UC Davis lamenting the fact that much prime farmland with perfect soil for growing crops was being turned into housing developments and would be lost from production. And then he saw homeowners put in raised beds and purchased soil which he was sure was inferior to that already in their yards.

Most new developments involve scraping off the topsoil and selling it. That is a big money maker for residential developers. Even more so if it is good farmland and with enriched soil. So there is really no decent soil left and importing soil is what most resort to. The developers may spread a thin layer of improved soil just for sod or any plantings to take but it is generally only an inch or two. The rest is all subsoil. If you want to grow anything successfully, you need to take the time to improve the existing soil - which does not happen over night - or import the soil.

Topsoil is exactly that. It was scraped off the top of something. Maybe a tank farm, or some superfund site. If you trust the existing soil, then it makes no sense not to just amend it with organics. Not sure why anyone would ever import dirt, unless maybe they were building a raised bed on some concrete.

Not sure what "balanced and perfect" means. A year after you get it, I guess it's not going to be "balanced and perfect" anymore, as the organics volatilize. Soil changes with time. So I guess you can just throw it all away and buy more!

If you get prebagged garden soil, someone has already done the mixing, which can be handy.

There are many reasons why one would purchase or import soil, several of which I've already referred to.

The indigenous topsoil has been removed and sold off. This is far more common than most think. And the remaining subsoil is of even poorer quality for plant growth than any topsoil and takes time to improve sufficiently to a plantable condition. So designers, landscapers and avid gardeners import decent soil to shortcut that process.

Filling raised beds, regardless of where or on what they are located. A standard 8'x4' raised bed takes almost a full cubic yard of soil and few have that much "spare" soil just sitting around in a pile somewhere.

Contouring, grading or creating berms. Same as above. Not everyone has a pile of unused soil sitting around with which to accomplish these functions.

What I meant was that if you have a prospective bed, with soil, just dig the soil and amend it. Loads of soil under your foot. Certainly, if you want a raised bed, you might want to have more, but by the time you've mixed a lot of organics into it, and fluffed it up, it's going to be pretty raised anyway. I have a bed that, over the years, I have added organics to every year (mostly leaf compost), and that bed is now almost a foot above the surrounding soil level. My subsoil, two feet down, is entirely adequate for growing (once I pull out the big rocks - caliche, ugh), but yes, I guess if you have bad stuff underneath, that could be a different issue. Worth doing an assessment before you buy.

>>Topsoil is exactly that. It was scraped off the top of something. Maybe a tank farm, or some superfund site.

Both of which would be illegal. Not impossible, but illegal, and the chances are very small.

I'd be more worried about more mundane problems like: texture (a truckload of heavy clay is no fun for anyone), noxious weeds, demolition debris, etc. These factors are far more likely to cause dissatisfaction with mystery soil than chemical contaminants. Except for maybe lead, which is widespread in the soil of older urban areas.

I just wanted to say that my neighbor purchased a few to several bags of soil for his raised beds, and although I wouldn't say it looks or feels better than other soil in the area (and it isn't less compact), some kinds of plants (such as peppers and cucumbers) sure grow fast in it compared to how they do in our garden soil. However, the zucchini grown in it weren't better or worse, but seemed to have different fruit qualities.

At our old place, we had absolute adobe clay soil that turned to concrete once the rain stopped around April or so. We also had gophers galore! Thus the need for raised beds with hardware cloth and soil brought in from the organic landfill place, then, later from another organic place (adding about a bed a year).

We had a pretty good compost set up, but not enough to cover all 7 beds each year, so we brought in a truckload every couple of years to suppliment what we created ourselves. This was a truckload that cost about $40.

Our new place had a raised bed filled with construction rubble that we had emptied and filled with a "vege mix". Not so great, but our in ground plants are doing great!

Sound emitters for the gophers, and we're in good shape!

I'm still composting, but on a very small scale. Will use it on the raised bed.

Re selling of superfund soil, true, that would be illegal, but there are seriously polluted areas adjacent to superfund sites that just escaped being designated part of the formal site. No problem getting soil from those. Also, industry works very hard to keep residents from having their soil declared as a Superfund area. Keep the EPA out of our backyards!!! I believe that was happening in the North Birmingham Superfund vicinity a few years ago. As we know, there was a period when big box stores were selling bags of compost contaminated with clopyralid herbicides. Long ago, before I made my own compost, I'm pretty sure I got one.

The point being, it you buy soil from a random source, you really don't know where it came from, and what problems might come with it. The best strategy, if you're going to buy, is to do so from a reputable nursery. (Which Craigslist is probably not.) Pretty funny how organic gardeners can freak out over micrograms of contaminants getting put in their soil, which they bought from who knows where.

Gardengal,

Stupid question but what is it about fill dirt that makes it not good for growing in if you imbue it with enough OM? Isnt fill dirt just the subsoil? If so, I was under the impression that top soil is simply subsoil with organic matter. So if you take the subsoil and amend it with OM, mulch and continuously water it, doesnt this become the new topsoil?

I've had topsoil hauled in in bulk to level off areas. I'm blessed to have a place on old farmland so the soil already has a fantastic texture; I keep adding organic matter (manure, leaves, etc), that's just part and parcel of gardening. I buy a couple bags of top soil every year to plant up my pots -- I mixed about 50:50 *high quality* bagged with peat-based potting soil (I never use 100% potting soil, it dries out way too fast). Yes, I could dig some soil from my own ground, but then I'd have big holes I'd have to level off -- too much work. Plus, it's just handy to have a couple bags on hand -- say if need to pot something up quickly or fill in a hole the dog dug or whatever.

Fill dirt may or may not be subsoil. Typically, its the by product of excavation and construction activity so usually includes some subsoil but may also include a lot of rocks, chunks of concrete or other construction debris, sometimes general garbage (cans, broken glass, nails, pieces of plastic, etc.) and often lots of roots. And it contains virtually no organic matter or biological life.

Is it possible to convert this into decent planting soil? Sure, but it is not going to be a fast process. You can't just add organic matter and think it is ready to go. If you have the time and effort to devote to it, it can become perfectly acceptable but many do not wish to wait or expend the effort and opt to purchase soil instead. Neither way is necessarily better or worse..........it is just what best suits you as the gardener.

There are no labeling standards for topsoil, so the quality varies widely. It is more economical to add compost to existing soil, but it can take years of amending. Bulk soil is much cheaper than bagged, but not standardized. You have to research what is available in your area.

As others have suggested,come to grips with the idea that a project that size requires some industrial strength approaches. Too many people try to Mickey Mouse it.

Trying to renovate your yard with a compost tumbler or a few bags of this and that from Home Depot is absurd.

Instead of buying a few few bags of amendments, go to the landscape yard, buy the compost or other amendment in bulk (at least 3-5 yards) and pony up the delivery fee. Err on the side of too much rather than too little. Get.It.Done.

You’ll soon find a use for any excess, I guarantee you. In the great scheme of things that delivery fee is small potatoes.

I’m not organic. I have access to a pickup truck (1.3 yards) and no huge projects. So I get a load of free wood chips every year and spike it with the cheapest urea N ferts I can find. It would be much better to have access to chicken manure or even grass clippings instead of urea. I don’t. If I had unlimited time I could haunt coffee shops for coffee grounds. I can’t.

I have learned through soil tests that I can bring my not-so-organic pile up to perfection for less than $2 of real chemical name nutes. So I do that, instead. The completed project is about $15 a yard.

You can can argue all day long about the virtues of organic vs. inorganic, but the reality is that for most of us, the choice is really between doing or not doing.

Unless you are significantly cash constrained, pay the small premium to bring it up to speed now, rather than later.

PS. I don’t have a problem with that el cheapo bagged garden soil at all. It works fine and sometimes it’s just “dirt“cheap.

>>I have learned through soil tests that I can bring my not-so-organic pile up to perfection for less than $2 of real chemical name nutes.

'Chemical name nutes'? Maybe that was a typo but I am having trouble interpreting it.

Sometimes it's just easier to purchase rather than amend your own.

You either have time or you have money when it comes to your own resources. You spend time to save on money. Or you spend money to save on time.

When I just out of school and strapped for money, I perused Craigslist for free items for our yard. I didn't have a pickup truck, so would have to borrow from family. In between trying to schedule for a hauling vehicle, going to get the vehicle and heading to the person giving away free items, it can get a bit dicey and can eat up your time. Once we had more funds, we had soil delivered in bulk. It was well worth it.

Now I no longer have a yard, but still have plants in containers. I buy bags but will still amend with chicken manure. It makes more sense to do this than to try to get stuff here and there.

It comes down to the scope of a project and how much time or money a person has available to them. But I agree that it's really all about marketing and the push to buy in a modern and consumer-driven society.

@toxcrusadr I think nutes stands for nutrients. I've seen people use that term before. I'm guessing chemical name nutes are salts (nutrients with chemical names, such as monoammonium phosphate, calcium nitrate, etc.) But, I don't know. It could be a typo. It looks like people juxtapose them with organic nutrients sometimes, but it's important to know that some nutrients listed by their chemical names can be approved for organic gardening, due to being natural, as opposed to synthetically created (e.g. some potassium sulfate is OMRI approved, I believe I've read).

I've never bought bags of regular garden soil before, but I find the idea of using them in place of equally expensive soil amendments to be fascinating (on a small scale: think a few bags, as opposed to a truckload or two). I mean, mixing the purchased soil with your soil rather than mixing the soil amendments with your soil. It seems that it would provide a more lasting change to the soil. This comment isn't about a scenario where you lack soil. It doesn't take much excellent soil for great results. I'm not sure what mixing it with other soil will do, but I'm pretty curious.

This year I converted a lawn to my garden. I fenced off more than I can use in one year. But it gives me room to rotate crops, but requires me to mow some of my garden. I dug in 4 inches of horse manure in clay last fall and planted 48 potato plants into a 5x16 foot bed this year.

I also dug in 4 inches of mushroom manure into what was my lawn this spring and in a matter of a few days set out tomato plants. The lawn was an inch of sod on clay. I dug the sod in. I'd recommend using only 3 inches of manure or mushroom compost along with some mulch or peat. The point I'm making is that you don't need to add anything to the soil you have except some organic matter and maybe some lime and wood ash which I did use.

The horse manure I used was from a stable in my area that I knew of. It was horse manure with minimum straw, probably wasted hay, not bedding. It was maybe a couple years old. Some of it was even older, from the looks of my potatoes the older manure grew larger plants. I also passed up manure from a huge pile that would have been easier but was mostly wood chips used for bedding.

You can find horse manure by googling horse boarding with the name of your town and state. From my experience horse boarders don't use the manure and are happy to give it to you for free. I rented a pickup truck for $19.95 which became $43 with the mileage charge etc. That was an 8 foot bed which allows you to easily haul two cubic yards with a wheel barrow and shovel. Tie the wheel barrow down, they can and do fly. When you find a source visit it first. Some sites are inaccessible or possibly impossible to get back out of, and there is manure and then there is manure. You want horse manure that is black,. Brown horse manure is fresh, if its grey it'll also be smoking hot. Find the black stuff, it's there somewhere.'If it's for next spring then it doesn't need to "well composted". If you leave it in a pile it'll be ready next spring.

As I said I passed up horse manure with wood chips in it. The other possibilities are manure with no bedding and straw used for bedding. That with straw is excellent but it is harder to dig into. If you're looking for fresh manure for a hot frame, fresh manure with straw will keep your frame the warmest.

So I'm saying that you can dig manure into a lawn and plant the same day. No other preparations are necessary. My lawn had no rocks, there was more rocks in the mushroom manure than in my lawn. I did have lots of tree roots which presented a problem for me at my age and health. I used nothing but a spade and a hatchet to cut the roots.

Not all gardeners are blessed with good soil, soil that can be improved to the desired state or, in some cases, any soil at all. I can grow a vigorous crop of okra by adding organic matter to the native alkaline clay. IME I cannot achieve similar results with any other veggies. No matter how much I amend the soil, the pH will always be alkaline. That's why I grow all other veggies in raised beds or grow bags filled with designer soil. As gardengal pointed out, bulk soil is more economical than bagged.

To the west of here, clay is replaced by bare limestone. A few gardeners in the Texas Hill Country are fortunate enough to have a patch of arable soil, but those patches are the exception. The alternative to growing in raised beds is to blast a hole in the rock, amend the ensuing limestone rubble and keep your fingers crossed. Is it any wonder why Tractor Supply sells so many horse troughs in this region?

One reason I can think of is that we expect the bagged soil to be free of impurities or bugs or microbes that we may not like. As you may know, re-using soil that you recondition, you see a lot more weeds growing up in that, because you expose and bring up seeds of other stuff that was in that soil.

Another reason is that yes, there are many organic things we can add to the soil mix, but it takes time to build up the material to the state where it may be beneficial to the plant. (Of course, there are other things like trench composting that seem to have good results in the same growing season).

Whereas a bagged soil is ready to be used as is, right now, today.

Truth is, sometimes that bagged soil gets real competitively priced. The stuff I’ve gotten looks like cow manure mixed with sand and maybe sawdust . It works just fine and at a buck a bag who’s going to complain, even in large numbers?

sorry about the “nutes“ thing. That comes from haunting the hydroponic forums and the “420” crowd I guess.

by ”real chemical “ name, I mean, for example Monopotassium Phosphate as opposed to “Koolbloom” (not to single out the General Hydrponics people who have excellent products.)

In my particular case all I need are micronutrients. About 9 grams Boric acid, 80 grams apiece of zinc sulfate and iron sulfate an 6 grams of copper sulfate In my finished pile of one cubic yard.