Good Quality Topsoil

[farreste]

After completing my raised beds, and recycling as much of the topsoil and turf as possible, I'm looking for a couple of tonnes of bagged topsoil. I'd rather soucrce it locally to me (Derby) which puts the more costly national suppliers out of the frame. I was thinking of using a firm called Topsoil4u, based near Mansfield:

TOPSOIL4U (Powered by CubeCart)

I was thinking of getting a couple of tonnes of 20mm screened topsoil and a tonne of the soil improver. I did contemplate getting 5mm screened topsoil but I don't know if it's too fine for veg growing. Any ideas/suggestions/reccomendations guys?

Thanks in advance!

[susiewoosie]

I got my topsoil here. It comes in 20kg bags and the more you but the better

Online Soil: Buy Soil Online

[snohare]

There's no way 5mm screened topsoil will be too fine for veggie growing unless it is sandy, all they are doing is seiving out the stones of more than 5mm diameter. You might not want to get all of your soil like that, you need bigger stones lower down to give drainage - but as a layer to make into a fine crumbly tilth, 5mm screened sounds okay to me. If nothing else, clay lumps won't go through the screen so they'll avoid screening clayey soil, and they probably wouldn't bother to screen it at all if it was very sandy, so it sounds like it will be decent quality in terms of crumb size.
I have no knowledge whatsoever of how good individual companies are - although there is one farmer in the North East of Scotland I would never trust to know the difference between fertile topsoil and sterile subsoil ! - but you could try an online search using the company name and some keywords, see if there are any mentions of customers having problems with their products on other forums.

[IgglePiggle]

I got my topsoil here. It comes in 20kg bags and the more you but the better

Online Soil: Buy Soil Online

�95 for some manure! Could make my own for that

[snohare]

Yes, Iggle, but it would be crap !

[vikkib]

Yes, Iggle, but it would be crap !

(snigger!)

[IgglePiggle]

Yes, Iggle, but it would be crap !

Not if I eat healthy

[farreste]

When constructing my raised beds (8ft x 8ft x 1ft 4") I built the frame in-situ and dug down 4" or so below the base of the bed to use as much of my good topsoil as possible. In it's place, I laid down some broken paving slabs and aggregate to promote drainage on my otherwise clayey/impermeable garden. With this in mind, especially after Snohare's comments, I think I'll go for the 5mm stuff as I'm hoping the drainage precautions that I've already taken are sufficient. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!!