Soil for gardens and allotments

[michaelp]

At some point in the future I want make some gardens for houses and also a small allotment site, can anyone suggest the best way to simulate soil and how to fix it down?

Thanks in advance.

[Nearholmer]

Soil makes good soil.

 

If you live in a clay area, that is ideal, because clay is made of very fine particles, and once truly dry it crumbles down very easily, and you can siege it down to fine dust using a cheap tea-strainer.

 

You can bake it lightly in the oven on a flat tray to kill any wildlife, but might not need to bother, and it risks burning any organic matter and making the soil darker.

 

I’ve used dilute PVA with the tiniest amount of washing up liquid to stick it down, just like ballasting, but that does darken it very slightly ..... makes it look as if it rained recently.

[spikey]

This earth powder stuff does the biz very nicely indeed for me  ...

 

https://www.treemendus-scenics.co.uk/groundwork/

[Nearholmer]

Looks suspiciously like soil from someone else’s garden, sold in a bag.

[spikey]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Looks suspiciously like soil from someone else’s garden, sold in a bag.

 

It probably is.  But both times I've tried making my own model soil, I've been defeated by its high organic matter content.  By the time I'd picked bits out, dried it, picked more bits out, sieved it, sieved it again a couple more times and then seen how little usable stuff I had left, I'd decided that life's too short for any more such faffing about when I can buy a consistent first class product from Treemendous for a fair price.

 

Same with Green Scene's ballasts, which I suspect are nothing more than walnut-shell blasting medium coated in emulsion paint.  But do I fancy making my own ... ?

[michaelp]

The texture of the 'Treemendous' soil looks ok but I thought the colour is a bit to light.

Edited November 24, 2019 by michaelp

[hucknall byron]

Using soil is so easy. Sieve it, bake it, use it. Endless supply in my back garden. Word of warning! Wait until the wife goes out for the day as the baking process smells and gives the game away leading to a completely avoidable domestic about cooking soil in her oven. Unhygenic apparently.

[The White Rabbit]

On 23/11/2019 at 15:09, Nearholmer said:

Looks suspiciously like soil from someone else’s garden, sold in a bag.

 

I've heard a rumour it's actually river silt. 

 

Whatever it really is, I sprinkle it (and a few other mixtures of my own creation) in wet textured paint for extra texture and colour, the combination usually turns out alright. 

[Campaman]

I have been using soil, dust etc for years from the garden and have never baked it and not had any problems with wild life, I just spread it out on a tray to dry and any wildlife tends to move on.