fancy dirt

[Tom7227]

I saw an ad on the TV for that special miracle dirt and it was only $4 s bag. The bag must have weighed about 20 lbs the way they were tossing it around. So, I have my opinion, but wonder about others.

Would you dig out your old worn out dirt and buy fancy dirt, or are there other options?

[pureinsanity]

pulverized / compost blend... 50/50

[klecker]

pulverized / compost blend... 50/50

+1

[Tom7227]

Not getting much play on this one.

I for one have opted to bring in a lot of compost from one of the county sites and tilled it in. Juggle it a bit with some gypsum to break up the clay, some hydrated lime to balance the Ph a bit.

No way would I buy bags of the miracle soil for a garden.

[Steve Foss]

I'd never buy it that way either, Tom. Worn out dirt is just soil that usually needs recharging with texture and nutrients. Most commonly with soil like that, I'll apply compost and/or rotted manure and spade/till it in. I've also broadcast a 10-10-10 granular in fall, which leaches into the soil nicely with spring snow melt.

[bottomdweller]

Just go talk to a farmer and ask for some cow lane dirt, shovel it yourself, best dirt ever!!

[pureinsanity]

Just go talk to a farmer and ask for some cow lane dirt, shovel it yourself, best dirt ever!!

LOL Cow Lane. lol

[LwnmwnMan2]

If you're inner city, just using planters, there's a good chance you don't have a pickup, or know many people with pitchforks, or farmers for that matter.

It's just as easy and "trendy" to buy the fancy dirt for people in the above scenario.

[Steve Foss]

If THAT'S what you mean by fancy dirt (any dirt that comes in bags), we'll be buying some to fill our galvanized washtubs for the pole beans. Round here, we just call it topsoil that comes in bags, and it's "dirt" cheap. Nuthin fancy about it.

[Dotch]

The same happens here even though we have plenty of well rotted, composted whatever. Lots of 50# bags of commercial mix purchased from the greenhouse are used in the flower planters at home and the Mall for Men. Just easier to meter out and the product is more consistent, designed specifically for that purpose. For the gardens however that's a lot easier to go back to the pile and scoop up a few buckets full with the skidloader then till it in. Turns "burned out soil" into a wonderful substrate in which to grow many plants.

[Trucks]

Well this so called "fancy dirt" isn't really made for putting in your garden. It works very nicely for container gardening. It has a lot of vermiculite and peat in it. If your looking for something to mix into your garden to add nutrients this is not what you should be looking at. If you have hard clay soil, add peat. If looking to add a natural fertilizer I would recomend manure or/and compost.

[FishLocker]

Cow lane dirt is great stuff. But for us folks without access to cow lanes, I go to the place on 169 between Jordan and Chaska where they make compost out of the yard waste collected from around the cities (that is where most Saturday morning yard waste pick ups go South of the River)

They have a Farmers Blend that is 1/2 black dirt and 1/2 compost. And you buy it by the yard if you have a trailer, or I bring 55 gallon plastic garbage cans in my van...and they figure out about how many yards. Much cheaper than the big box stores bagged stuff. Because it is high in organics it does ok tilled into clay soil to break it up without having to add peat or anything else. They also will deliver.

With a new garden I would still have it tested after tilling it in to see where you are at and if you need to add anything else. Then you are off and running with a correct mix from the get-go and only have to maintain after that.