Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 08, 2010 11:39 pm Did some soil prep this week on some garden beds and took some photos. When I started digging I found that all was not as expected. I was near the coast and assumed that I would have white sand for soil but due to a lot of fill and construction I had a 100mm layer of bluemetal dust, then about 200mm of red sandy loam (meru loam they call it here, it is the dirt that came out of the hole when they dug the new landfill site), which is an ok soil when moist but sets like concrete if allowed to dry out. Below that was the white sand. Bugger. I could not accept this layered profile so decided there was nothing for it but to dig about 200mm below the red sand into the white and then mix up all three soils together. By hand with a shovel, and that was before I even started improving the soil! First photo shows the soil layers in the profile Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then I levelled out the bed and spread out a 100mm layer of DSATCO piggypost over the bed. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then I added zeolite, spongolite and attapulgite (locally mined alternative to bentonite) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Then I dug this all through the top 300mm or so of soil (Dont have a picture of the mixed bed but it was an orange-ish black/brown colour witha sweet smell!) Then I chucked on pea straw about 100mm thick and then about 50 mm of tree mulch. This will all pack down a bit. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I plan to leave this for a week and then plant mainly natives into it (Will that be alright Fu ?) Client is going to give it a few waters. Application rates I planned to use were- 100mm of piggypost into the top 300m of soil (did that) Zeolite - 750g/m2 Spongolite - 1kg/m2 Attapulgite - 1kg/m2 However as there was the red loam in the mix I scaled those numbers back a bit as they were for sandy soil. I am lucky to have a client who trusts me to spend his money on correct soil prep so that I could do it right. Anyway, that was my week and my back is feeling knackered! Re: Soil prep in pictures 2Oct 09, 2010 1:25 am Wow, certainly nice work there keen! Now I really wished I had chucked on more zeo + sponge in my ground prep for my lawn. Re: Soil prep in pictures 3Oct 09, 2010 2:34 am HI Keen Top work on the soil mixing. Looks like a lot of hard work. My neighbour suggested I get some native mix soil and avoid the standard enriched soil for natives. I found one of my natives isn't too happy with the enriched soil it ended up in on the edge of one bed. So keep a close eye on your ones. My poor grevillea was very unimpressed and I'm trying to undo the rich soil mix it got put in by adding iron sulphate rather than trying to dig the poor thing back out. .( phosphorous poisoning) <sp> Re: Soil prep in pictures 5Oct 09, 2010 5:42 pm They won't bat an eye lid at it. Geeze if you saw what I have growing in very rich friable composted soil, you'd be amazed. The native plant troop would be horrified! I have one tiny Hakea laurina that hasn't looked to be doing much till I felt around the soil. One massive root system (so that is what he was doing ) the size of a football! I have had full sun Wheatbelt natives in absolute full shade and extremely rich composted soils and they have not only survived but look perfect. Local Roo paw species that love sand going nuts. Arid stylidiums going bonkers! Re: Soil prep in pictures 6Oct 09, 2010 5:47 pm I don't recommend native soil mixes. Cert organic soils have nothing harmful to Proteaceae or Acacias. Kings Park use Yellow brickies sand and fine crushed granite or tree mulch. Re: Soil prep in pictures 7Oct 09, 2010 6:16 pm oo reallly FU. hmm I am currently trying to green up my grevillea ned kelly. the leaves went a yellow /gold colour. not dead just very unhappy. I had a nursery person ask me what sort of soil it was in and I said a bit of a mix with some soil conditioner/ mumballup magic blended with the dirt in the garden and she said that's the problem. Not getting iron. Woman down the end of the street whose natives are going really well ( admittedly shes got them on a drip system said she gets in a native garden mix for hers. So glad to hear that it's worth keeping at it with my ned kelly. Re: Soil prep in pictures 8Oct 09, 2010 6:31 pm Not getting iron sure but that is not because of your soil in the fashion she means. She should know that richer composts will make more nutrient s available. It is the native soils of the SW which are renowned for being nutrient deficient and the very reason I crap on about everyone using certified organic composts To make more iron available, add more organic compost molasses also, it is a natural chelating agent. So it makes more iron available naturally. The garden centre person should also know that Ned Kelly has tropical relatives and they will like tropical soils. Part of his rellies are from around north of your place and the ability of his rellies to grow in a variety of soil types made the Qld part all the more versatile. Appeal to his tropical side and you will see an improvement Organic composts will buffer soil pH and also make the environment for micro organisms more favourable which in turn makes a more balanced range of nutrients very available. Load up some tree lopper mulch around him too and pull it away from the base of the plant Some "ozmocote plus organics" controlled release will do a treat also It's a new one in a green tub instead of the standard white tub *Before you head off to the garden centre, post the problem here at Homeone If I don't know the answer, I'll know someone who does Re: Soil prep in pictures 9Oct 09, 2010 7:07 pm thanks Fu. I didn't tell hr what grevillea. I'll grab some osmocote as well. I've been using molasses all along and started last week with the iron phosphate on it and I think it's looking a little happier. it is alsp near the limestone retaining wall which prob isn't helping it. Sadly mulch net is a not happening down here and I want to get the mulch on the garden once the lawn goes in as the guys will have to troop through a corner of it to get to the lawn area and use the garden bed area to set out their lawn rolls. well i'm guessing on that bit. . So another couple of weeks before mulch happens. I'll stick down some sugar cane mulch around it until then as it's in a little pocket where the wind won't catch the sugar cane. I've got 1/2 a bag left still . Regardless of wall hung toilet or floor pan toilet your feet will be right on drain, seems to me the waste should not be in that location given the design. Also are you… 6 7026 Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 30233 I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13053 |