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Amending Your Soil When builders of home subdivisions lay out a yard, they typically provide a home owner with a minimum amount of topsoil. Since they install a large amount of yards, they are more concerned about cost-savings for the entire housing project, than the long-term picture of the plant installation. Even though the plants selections in these housing developments can be quite excellent, they will not do well in the course of 3-5 years because there's no transition between the topsoil and the subsoil. The topsoil should blend into a loose, friable composted subsoil. If you're a home owner in any housing development, all you need to do is get a shovel, and try digging a hole. You will quickly discover that your topsoil is very shallow. Now try to think about a nice tall tree, say a Rhodie. In 3-5 years, it will send out feeder roots that should spread beyond the topsoil and down into the subsoil Water saturated subsoil will inhibit oxygen and nutrient uptake, making the plants look anemic. The most common problem that I've seen in most landscapes is either clayish type soils that don't drain very well, or soils that dry out too quickly. Either scenerio is bad news to grass, flowers, shrubs and trees. Fortunately, any home owner can improve this situation relatively easily. I would suggest looking in your local paper for farmers that are selling chicken or horse manure compost. You can get the stuff for free if you do a little research - all you have to do is shovel and haul it yourself. Sometimes you may even find a source that will load it for you! To amend the soil, you can either double dig 2" of manure mix or compost, for every 6" of your existing soil. If you aren't clear on double digging methods, here's a good web reference: double digging illustrated. If you bring in a tractor or tiller to assist you, you can integrate 4" into a foot of existing soil. If you have particularly clayish soil, supplement your manure mix or compost with dolomite. If the manure mix you've gotten is green (less broken down) or contains raw sawdust, you can fortify this mix with nitrogen by broadcasting it on the surface. If you want a more scientific method to test your soil, try to get a soil test by checking with your local horticulture extension service. By doing so, you will be able to determine what kind of amendments you will need to add. More specifically, if your soil test results in high acidity in your soil, you will need to add lime in order to increase the acidity to a neutral range. On the other hand, if you soil shows too much alkalinity, then you will need to add sulpher to bring this down to a neutral range.
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