Why Topsoil Costs so Much
October 24th, 2008 by searcher
When I first started doing landscaping around my yard, I was surprised at how much the simplest landscaping materials, such as topsoil, cost. It turns out, though, that there is a perfectly good reason why topsoil costs so much.
In order to function as topsoil, the soil needs to be fine, rich earth, with no rocks and other random objects. This requires that a soil be run through dirt screening plants or topsoil screeners, machines that screen out large particles to make the dirt useable as topsoil. A portable screening machine isn’t cheap, so it costs something to put the soil through this process.
Topsoil also has to be embued with the decaying organic matter that is found naturally in topsoil. This matter works as fertilizer and is a necessity for the health of the plants. This is often added using compost, which is decomposed organic matter, usually manure or organic trash from households.
When you figure all these things in — the time and equipment it takes to screen the soil and the compost, the time and money it takes to make the compost, etc. — it’s easy to see that topsoil isn’t “just dirt,” and to understand why you have to pay for good topsoil!
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