What soil is better to buy for the garden. Fertile soil delivered to the site

My garden is located in a swampy area and regularly gets heavily flooded in the spring. This has the most negative impact on the quality of the soil - nutrients They are gradually washed out of it, it becomes very compacted and does not dry out until the end of May. When purchasing soil for a plot, I had to go through almost every possible rake, so in this article I decided to look at the main mistakes that gardeners make when purchasing soil for a plot.

Choosing the wrong soil composition

When choosing the composition of the purchased soil mixture, two factors need to be taken into account: initial soil condition on the site (its level of fertility + mechanical composition) and kinds cultivated plants that you plan to cultivate on your land (for some vegetable and ornamental crops there may be diametrically opposed requirements not only for the structure of the soil, but also for the quantity and ratio of the basic nutrients contained in it).

For example, to improve heavy soil containing a large percentage of clay, a mixture consisting of high-quality bottom peat, coarse sand and floodplain soil in a ratio of 3:4:2 is best suited. Of course, most often the choice of soil mixtures on the market is limited and comes down to two or three options:

1. Peat mixtures, which are a mixture of fertile soil and peat in different proportions. They are usually purchased for a lawn and for site planning.
2. Chernozems are used mainly as a nutrient additive to the main soil mixture (usually no more than 10% of its volume).
3. Soil mixtures, which may include, in addition to peat and plant soil, humus, mineral fertilizers, sand and even compost. Such mixtures are usually offered by large specialized companies and are not cheap. But they usually do not contain debris, have optimal moisture and air capacity and undergo strict environmental control.

The general rule is - choose a soil in which the amount of peat does not exceed 30%.

Purchasing from unreliable suppliers

If you are not sure of the seller’s integrity, then it is better to play it safe and purchase soil from large, well-known companies that value their reputation in the market and will not give you a pig in a poke.

By purchasing soil from private owners at a low price, if a successful combination of circumstances occurs, you will receive waste soil from industrial greenhouses, on which even ordinary parsley will not grow. And in the worst case, you will get land from sedimentation tanks, “rich” in compounds of mercury, lead, cadmium, copper and even arsenic. You can pay for such savings with your health and that of your loved ones.

I had the experience of purchasing such soil: they brought us the top layer of virgin soil cut from a meadow. The soil was used to fill the foundation from the demolished country house and to raise the ground level by small area in the other place. Already the next spring we realized what a mistake we had made - the entire area was covered with perennial weeds, which we had to fight throughout the next season.

But if you still decide to buy soil from a machine, then at least carry out a minimal check:

1. Use a wooden stake with a pointed end to poke the soil in different places. Can the stick easily pierce the soil mixture? This means there is almost no clay in it. If you cannot push the stick even 10 centimeters, then there is a lot of clay or sand in the land offered to you.
2. Conduct a soil acidity test using the OKP soil control kit (you can buy it at any gardening store).
3. Do a simple soil texture test described in.
4. Take an empty liter jar, fill it with soil, pour it in clean water and stir thoroughly. Wait until the soil settles into a sediment consisting of a layer of clay and sand. If we conventionally take the height of the resulting column as 100%, you can easily estimate how much sand is in the soil mixture and how much of the other components.

And here chemical composition purchased soil and its environmental safety can only be determined in a specialized laboratory.

Purchasing black soil

Purchasing black soil to improve the quality of the soil on the site is an expensive and pointless exercise. And that's why.

Firstly, in our climate, black soil very quickly loses all its positive characteristics, for which he was bought. And the whole point is that chernozem is formed only if the moisture coefficient in a given area does not exceed one, that is, the earth evaporates more moisture than is poured onto it along with precipitation. In most of the territory of Russia, this coefficient is above one, so after just a few heavy rains, black soil loses all its advantages, becomes compacted and becomes overgrown with a hard crust.

Secondly, REAL black soil cannot be cheap if the nearest black soil zone is located hundreds of kilometers away from your site. The cost of such soil consists not only of the price of its loading and unloading, it also includes all kinds of transport and overhead costs, including gasoline costs.

Third, often under the guise of chernozem they sell a mixture of bottom peat and sapropel. This mixture looks like black soil, but it is less fertile and also tends to acidify the soil on the site.

Buying too little land

This is also one of the most common mistakes made when purchasing land for a site.

For example, if your goal is to increase the soil level in a plot of six acres with medium loamy soil by only 4 - 5 centimeters, then you will need at least 30 cubic meters soil, that is, you will need to bring to the site at least 2-3 (!) truckloads of soil(capacity truck varies from 10 to 15 cubic meters of soil). In our area, one car of fertile land (note that it is land of untested quality, and not humus or, especially, black soil) costs from 5,000 rubles. And if you take a better one, and even with all the “paperwork,” you will have to fork out the entire 10,000 rubles.

It seems to me that the best way out of this situation is to equip the garden with stationary beds and fill them with high-quality soil mixture purchased from large companies with a good reputation. As an option, you can also purchase sapropel, sand, horse (cow humus) and peat and make the mixture yourself (if you have the time and knowledge).

Thus, the order of your actions when purchasing soil for a site should be as follows:

1. Determine the mechanical and nutritional composition of the soil on your site, and also think in advance what crops you are going to grow on it.
2. Choose a major supplier who is willing to provide you with full list certificates and analyzes of the soil mixtures sold by them.
3. Calculate how many cubic meters of soil you need for your purposes (improving fertility or raising the ground level).

By the way, about how to ennoble clay soil, you can read it.

I also recommend watching a short video on the same topic.

Not every plot intended for the construction of a summer house can boast of flat terrain. Development of the territory within its boundaries is proving difficult. In such cases, the site should be raised before building the house. To get it right raise the level of the site, it is necessary to determine its geological features and relief. The land plot may be located:

1. Above sea level.
2. Below sea level.
3. Above ground level.
4. Below ground level.

Based on the terrain, determine the better to raise a plot of land.

In the first and third cases, raising the soil at the dacha may be necessary only to level the terrain: eliminate depressions and smooth out unevenness. Lands below sea level are usually swampy and the area should be raised to avoid flooding of building foundations. If the dacha or cottage is located below ground level, then water from neighboring slopes will accumulate on the territory of the household.

How to raise the soil on a plot, ask by phone +7-985-112-20-10

There are several main ways to level up. If the height of the rise is within 30 centimeters, then soil imported or taken from neighboring elevations is used. The poured earth mixture is leveled, compacted and covered with a fertile layer (previously removed).

When level differences exceed 30 centimeters or more, leveling mixtures (sand in combination with soil and clay) are used. The materials are laid in layers, sprinkled with fertilizers and covered with fertile soil.

Only specialists can correctly determine the composition of planning mixtures. As a rule, it depends on the budget ( cheap option This clay, loam, soil, sandy loam), but you can also use sand, sandy soil, soil and black soil!

After assessing the surface fertile layer, professionals will tell you the soil ( loam, sandy loam, soil) what composition should be used to properly raise the level of the site. It is worth considering that the price of the mixture different composition is different. To raise the level by 1 meter per 1 hectare of area, about 100 cubic meters of earth mixture will be required.

Preparatory stage of work

Before, how to raise the soil in the country , you should perform a number of preliminary steps:

• study the terrain;
• determine the depth groundwater;
• determine soil type; neighbors)
• clean the surface of debris, weeds, stumps;
• give dump trucks the opportunity to enter the gate!

You can qualitatively raise the area using strip foundation, which is also created on preliminary stage. To create it, dig a trench to a depth of 20 centimeters and select soil. Then they make formwork from boards and fill it with mortar. And the excavated soil is planned for the dacha plot!

Providing services for raising land plots from 6 acres

How raise the soil on the site, to provide good drainage and drainage of excess water? To do this, it is necessary to lay the earth mixture ( soil clay sand sand soil soil) with a slight slope - equal to 3 centimeters per meter of length. The order of work is as follows:

Rich soils are like a kind of sponge: they retain water and nutrients, and then release them in portions to plants and beneficial soil organisms, and also contain quite a lot of air. Fertile soil provides the roots with a comfortable thermal regime and favorable acidity; it has a better structure and is not so prone to compaction.

The fertility of the soil is largely determined by the content of organic matter in its upper layer. It consists of the remains of roots and above-ground parts of plants, the results of the vital activity of soil animals and microorganisms, and most importantly - humus, a mass of organic substances dark color, with which the soil is saturated.

Everyone knows the most fertile soil types are chernozems. They contain a lot of humus and essential nutrients, and a rich organic matter upper layer can be more than 1 m thick. These soils quickly warm up and cool slowly, and due to their lumpy and granular structure they retain looseness, air and water permeability, and retain moisture well.

However, if your plot is located in a non-chernozem zone, this does not mean that you will not be able to grow anything on it. The experience of many summer residents shows that poor soil can be successfully improved and cultivated. There are different ways to deal with this.

Add black soil?

Many summer residents are obsessed with the idea of ​​bringing black soil to the site and spreading it in a layer on top of the poor soil. If you really find real black soil, and not waste soil, peat or silt from urban treatment facilities, then there will be an effect. But temporary - for 3-4 years. And then nature will take its course: the bulk chernozem soil will gradually be washed away, decompose and disappear. In addition, high yields can be obtained without it!

Our information

Chernozems are formed in forest-steppe or steppe conditions and exist only in places with a certain climate, where grasses dry out every summer, and their roots then decompose in the presence of calcium. Alas, after plowing, chernozem turns into an artificial environment for growing plants and degrades over time.

Scientists have found that transporting chernozem over a distance of more than 100 km is unprofitable.

Fertilize with manure?

Bovine

The popular barn fertilizer does not contain many nutrients, but is very rich in microorganisms (both beneficial and pathogenic) and weed seeds. Therefore, fresh cow dung needs to be processed into humus (see below). Fresh manure can be applied directly to the soil only long before planting, for example in the fall, by incorporating it into the ground.

Used barn litter is valuable future fertilizer.

Pork

Piggy waste cannot be used for fresh due to the presence of pathogens in it, and its acidity is higher than that of manure from other animals. Although pig manure contains a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus in forms available to plants. In this regard, pig manure needs proper composting, after which it can also be safely applied.

Horse

Compared to cow manure, horse manure is richer in nutrients. In addition, it decomposes quickly, releasing a lot of heat, which is why it is called hot and is used for cooking warm beds. Horse manure is dry, contains a lot of fiber, and thus helps maintain the integrity of the soil structure. When rotted, it is well suited for mulching. You can mix it with other types of manure and compost it.

Make humus!

Rotted manure with peat - excellent organic fertilizer. It can be safely used both for continuous application (approximately 20 kg/10 m2) with embedding in the soil, and for spot application - in planting holes or furrows (5 kg/10 m2). On sandy soils manure is buried deeper (up to 30 cm) than on clay soils (15-20 cm). By adding mineral fertilizers, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, we can significantly increase the effect of organic matter.

How to prepare humus?

Fresh manure should be placed in a compost bin in the form of a “layer cake” with peat (in proportions from 1:1 to 4:1) with the addition of lime or phosphate rock. The thickness of each layer is 25-30 cm. The contents of the heap are moistened as necessary, without allowing them to dry out. During composting (six months to a year), pathogenic microflora and some weed seeds die. It is undesirable to use sawdust for composting, as this results in the loss of valuable nitrogen.

Attention!

It is not enough to improve the soil; you need to maintain fertility. But for this there is no longer a need to purchase truckloads of manure or peat. Details in the next issue.

If you decide to purchase summer cottage You should think first about the soil. Soil is the basis of everything, your guarantee good harvest. It would seem that the task is easy - soil is sold on every corner in the spring, and everything is completely black soil. But it's not that simple.

Let's figure it out.

1. Buy soil only from trusted specialized companies. There are many such companies now; they can be easily found by searching on the Internet. On the company's websites you can get acquainted with the company's products and the composition of the soil. When buying soil from a company, there is less chance of buying bad soil and being deceived. In practice, chernozem from single sellers is a processed substrate from greenhouses or a layer cut off during the expansion of roads or abandoned collective farm fields. It is difficult to test such soil without laboratory analysis, and the license is unlikely to be a genuine document.
2. It is necessary to determine the composition of the soil and calculate the volume. Experts do not recommend using more than 30% peat. Soil with a high peat content settles quickly and the soil must be purchased in reserve. If the composition is more than half peat, such soil is mixed with the soil of the allotment, thin layer peat mulches the plants.
3. The cost of soil from different suppliers may vary, but each company has both economical options with poorer soil, and richer soil at a higher price. If it is difficult for you to calculate how much soil and what composition to purchase, companies often provide a service with which they can help you calculate the cost based on your requests and the site.

Most often used:

• Humus and peat;
• Manure and peat;
• Chernozem;
• Sand for leveling.

Chernozem is recognized as the most fertile soil. However, summer residents claim that during transportation it loses its properties. Many gardeners are more satisfied economical option– manure and peat or humus and peat.

How to determine good soil by eye?

Without expertise, this is difficult, but there are factors that, if you take a closer look at, reduce the chance of buying bad soil.

• Pay attention to the uniformity of the soil, the soil is well mixed, there are no foreign elements (stones, fragments of boards, glass, lumps of clay)
• The soil is loose, the clods are small

What to do with the brought soil?

The ground on the site must first be dug up and leveled, and the brought soil must be poured on top. If necessary, mix with soil.

All the soil is rarely used at once; you need to know how to store it. Keep the soil in a dry area in the corner of the plot where there is no watering. Store the soil 2-3 meters from tree trunks, cover it with film to keep it dry.

We hope the tips will help you do right choice. We wish you a rich harvest!