Three Types of Soil Products to Consider for Your Garden
When choosing soil products for your garden, you need to consider the specific landscaping project and what you're trying to achieve. Here are three alternatives that may suit you.
Garden Soil
If you want to improve the soil in your garden beds, you could choose garden soil. These mixes are made of topsoil blended with compost and organic matter. They help the beds retain moisture, allowing plants to flourish while not being so heavy that air and water can't flow through the soil. You can mix garden soil with the existing topsoil in your garden beds or add it to a new raised bed.
Garden soils provide more nourishment than standard topsoil products, but they are more all-rounders than specialists. If you want soil for particular native plants or flowers, you can opt for a product with a suitable pH and specific nutrients. A soil supplies expert can advise on speciality options.
Top Soil
If you want general landscaping soil to even out your backyard or for other tasks, then topsoil is an ideal option. Topsoil consists of the upper layer of soil that is bagged without the added nourishing products of garden soil. Topsoil is not intended to help plants grow better but is for general use, such as when you need soil to fill a hole where a tree once stood.
You can also use topsoil as a base to which you add compost and other nutrients, creating your own homemade garden soil. You can additionally use topsoil as one layer in a raised garden bed, along with other healthy soils and composts.
Mulch
If you want to improve the soil in the garden beds, you could opt for a layer of mulch, which provides various benefits. It reduces water evaporation, and the beds will thus need less watering. Mulch regulates the soil and protects plants from extreme weather, so plants that prefer cooler soil can cope with hot summers better. A mulch layer will also decrease erosion from wind and rain and suppress weed growth.
Organic mulch, consisting of various materials like leaves, hay, bark, and wood chips, adds appealing textures and colours to the garden and gives the beds consistency. Finer mulches tend to decompose more quickly than coarser ones and need more frequent top-ups. They should be spread more thinly than coarse mulches so they don't block airflow through the soil. Inorganic mulches such as colourful stones and pebbles provide further possibilities.
Contact a local company to learn more about soil supplies.