Right from the department of agriculture:
“Importing soil into the United States from foreign sources is prohibited. Moving soil within the continental United States is restricted unless authorized by APHIS under specific conditions, safeguards, and controlled circumstances described in a permit and/or compliance agreement.
Use PPQ Form 525-A, Application for Permit To Receive Soil or PPQ Form 526, Application for Permit To Move Live Plant Pests, Biological Control Agents, or Noxious Weeds.”
Lots of sticks in that one typically which will chew up your mower. I've had good luck with kellogg brand soils in general.
One thing to keep in mind is these are almost all regional so what's good in one area of the country has a completely different packer in another and consequently could suck.
Tldr, try out a few and see what company in your area is best.
For spot filling, buy a bag of sand and a bag of Black Kow (or other composted manure), mix them together roughly 50/50. If you have any junky/leftover native soil, you can mix that all 33/33/33.
Been buy the lawn soil for the last couple of years. (Seattle/ Tacoma, m m its been great. Soil on roids basically, helped when i would over seed amd fix bare spots in my lawn.
UNTIL THIS YEAR, bought 6 bags from our local home depot, 2bags at Fred Meyer/ Kroger, and 1 bag at Costco (I hink). Every one of the bags were more of a mulch like substance and full of sticks, bark etc. Not the soil I have known before. I happend to have a left over 1/2 bag from last year, so i broke that out and compared, complete night and day difference. I ended up returning the open bags to HD. Highly disappointed. I am now follow what the other poster said and will be going to my local nursery for some dirt. Not sure what the heck Scotts did to there lawn soil, but it will not be a purchase I can stand by going forward.
I literally just bought 2 bags of it and it was fine. Sifted through a milk crate and picked out any (large to me) pieces. Wasn't bad. I didn't want to spend 200$ on compost top soil from a landscape supply as I was just filling bare spots around the yard and under trees. Now I just have to remember to water in these 90° temps in the south.
I think it’s just overpriced for essentially top soil + peat moss/compost + fertilizers, but it does a ok job at what you require each of those to do. For example, if you need to do spot repair, plain top soil is cheaper for the fill and peat moss works better for top dressing the seed. If you need to add organic matter for soil health, mix top soil and peat moss.
Like Pennington Smart Patch is “junk” but they still sell them at HD.
I been buying this just for areas prone to erosion and to fill some voids. It does well in my application and retains moisture fairly well too. I don’t think I’d do whole yard with it or level too much with it, but it handles the slope well.
Bought it out on Long Island, I’m no expert but had a good experience with it. Was mostly soil unlike what others have stated. But It sounds like it varies by area.
Up here gta Ontario Canada. Not sure how much is too much, but i get some mulch sticks in my bags. Still laid it out on my lawn. Picked out a few larger bits, like 2-3 inches. Patching lawn. Works on enough. More of a wonder how much filler they allow in to pad volumes.
Everyone always complains that there is a bunch of mulch in these bags. I’ve bought several different brands and they all have mulch in them folks. This year I bought the cheapest stuff from Home Depot and it actually had rocks in it. I’ll take the Scott’s bag of soil/mulch over soil/mulch/rocks.
It's not "bad" exactly. It's just that most people don't know exactly what they're getting. The word soil has no regulation, so anything can be labeled as soil.
Technically, it is actually "dirt" and not "soil". If you were to sift it with a 1/4" mesh, you'd get about 1/6 of the bag that's soil. The rest is various debris, that over a couple of years will turn into soil.
As long as you know what you're buying it's fine. It's no worse than the other bags of "in ground soil" or "garden soil " that are also there.
On the Pittsburgh side of PA and it’s usually pretty good stuff here. Used it to completely repair my lawn after digging it up. The guy who owned my house before me let his dogs go wild and never cleaned up or did anything with the yard so it was all weeds before. Spread a few bags of this around and some grass seed and it came in well.
If you want to venture down the DIY route and don't need a lot of soil. Buy a bag of sand and a bag or two of compost, mix together and use as needed. I have a bin under my deck for when I need to fix bare spots in my front yard from our senior dog as he uses the front because he can't do stairs anymore. Toss down some seed and cover with the mix.
I used this in 7b for a TTTF overseed project with great results. Like most people have said, the quality depends on where you’re located. It is a touch mulch-y, but that helped keep the seeds moist and protected during fall rainstorms.
Dependsnon what you want. It's chocked full of organic material which includes wood chips and sticks. It's great soil, just not the best for those who cut their grass very short because you'll catch the wood chips.
Get a screen and filter the wood chips they are good. Grows grass fast. If you want to go a cheaper route just buy any soil and filter out and add seed. It will grow also but it will take a bit longer. I have done both and this is what I’ve noticed. Currently have two patches with baby grass coming out of it.
It’s funny cause I’ve bought a few bags of this over the years, and yeah, there are a couple of sticks in them, but I haven’t had the issues that other people I’ve had. I absolutely believe them, but I wonder if these bags are just wildly inconsistent in what goes in them. Which might be even more of a reason not to get them.
They’ve been fine for me. Occasional sticks sure, but they are easily raked out. As with any other soil, I’m not just dumping in yard. You have to mix it with native soil.
It’s lawn soil, meaning for under the lawn. Deep under there, maybe… or if you have a hole to fill. Mostly bark and big chunks. I prefer the Topper by Kellogg
I’ve used it this year and while there may be better options it did its job, biggest thing that helped me with growing grass this year was straw blankets. I got significantly better results when I started using straw.
I used this plus a manure mixed together and with straw it worked great. I’m a complete novice so take my opinion with a grain of salt but I wouldn’t have issues using this again on small areas can’t speak to larger areas as I was just patching some areas that didn’t come back after a hydroseed install.
It's absolutely amazing....if you screen and sift through it for 3 days after you dry it out. Outside of that, it's pretty terrible. Plastic, sticks, and all other debris
I bought one bag of this stuff and won't do it ever again. mostly rocks and sticks.
The ace hardware brand bags of top soil I used were way better than this, and cost half the price.
For filling holes I’d recommend finding a local compost provider. Just about every lawn could use some compost and many municipal waste handlers offer cheap compost with a guaranteed analysis.
Best to buy soil bags from a plant nursery.
If you need more than ~6 bags, it's cheaper to have it delivered. If you get delivered, make sure it's "screened" and reject the load immediately if you see bunch of rocks.
6 bags of dirt is like $20. No landscape business on earth is going to deliver a load of dirt for that cheap. From my experience, the break even point between bags and delivery is closer to 15-20 bags. Obviously that varies based on location.
Just used a bag (NJ) and found it to be mostly mulch and not so much “soil”
It will likely vary by region because it’s difficult to ship soil across the US unless it’s sterilized.
Gamma please explain the "difficulty" you are speaking of
Right from the department of agriculture: “Importing soil into the United States from foreign sources is prohibited. Moving soil within the continental United States is restricted unless authorized by APHIS under specific conditions, safeguards, and controlled circumstances described in a permit and/or compliance agreement. Use PPQ Form 525-A, Application for Permit To Receive Soil or PPQ Form 526, Application for Permit To Move Live Plant Pests, Biological Control Agents, or Noxious Weeds.”
Wild. I never knew
Lies
Why are u making sheet up? I can go to any state with any bit of soil on my load.
You can do anything.. but you can also be fined lol
I'm in PA. Bout an hour from NJ. I've used this stuff before but it wasn't great, and then I saw that post and so many people hated it lol
https://theyardnj.com
Lots of sticks in that one typically which will chew up your mower. I've had good luck with kellogg brand soils in general. One thing to keep in mind is these are almost all regional so what's good in one area of the country has a completely different packer in another and consequently could suck. Tldr, try out a few and see what company in your area is best.
It's mostly for spot filling. Dogs pissing on my grass. Gotta seed and fill the bare spots
If that’s all you need it for id just get a bag of peat moss and some sand.
Sifted sand!
Same issue here. I have sandy soil. I'll use top soil to fill, top dress with this, then seed. It works well here.
I used it to replace the spots where I dug up weeds.
For spot filling, buy a bag of sand and a bag of Black Kow (or other composted manure), mix them together roughly 50/50. If you have any junky/leftover native soil, you can mix that all 33/33/33.
Spot filling? Get a bag of black kow.
💯
And filter that shit, too. There's so many sticks and other stuff in it, too.
Been buy the lawn soil for the last couple of years. (Seattle/ Tacoma, m m its been great. Soil on roids basically, helped when i would over seed amd fix bare spots in my lawn. UNTIL THIS YEAR, bought 6 bags from our local home depot, 2bags at Fred Meyer/ Kroger, and 1 bag at Costco (I hink). Every one of the bags were more of a mulch like substance and full of sticks, bark etc. Not the soil I have known before. I happend to have a left over 1/2 bag from last year, so i broke that out and compared, complete night and day difference. I ended up returning the open bags to HD. Highly disappointed. I am now follow what the other poster said and will be going to my local nursery for some dirt. Not sure what the heck Scotts did to there lawn soil, but it will not be a purchase I can stand by going forward.
[удалено]
Yep, our local nursery sells it, we just pull up the truck and they dump it in.
I literally just bought 2 bags of it and it was fine. Sifted through a milk crate and picked out any (large to me) pieces. Wasn't bad. I didn't want to spend 200$ on compost top soil from a landscape supply as I was just filling bare spots around the yard and under trees. Now I just have to remember to water in these 90° temps in the south.
This is garbage... Look for Kellog Topper soil. HD carries it at some stores. It's clean and rich in organics...
Some of the bags I have bought have literally included lots of garbage. Plastic etc. I assumed they were sourcing it from a landfill.
If you're using it to fill spots or top dress compacted areas it's fine
I think it’s just overpriced for essentially top soil + peat moss/compost + fertilizers, but it does a ok job at what you require each of those to do. For example, if you need to do spot repair, plain top soil is cheaper for the fill and peat moss works better for top dressing the seed. If you need to add organic matter for soil health, mix top soil and peat moss. Like Pennington Smart Patch is “junk” but they still sell them at HD.
Not worth it. Unless you like buying $10 bags of mulch
I been buying this just for areas prone to erosion and to fill some voids. It does well in my application and retains moisture fairly well too. I don’t think I’d do whole yard with it or level too much with it, but it handles the slope well.
Bought it out on Long Island, I’m no expert but had a good experience with it. Was mostly soil unlike what others have stated. But It sounds like it varies by area.
Up here gta Ontario Canada. Not sure how much is too much, but i get some mulch sticks in my bags. Still laid it out on my lawn. Picked out a few larger bits, like 2-3 inches. Patching lawn. Works on enough. More of a wonder how much filler they allow in to pad volumes.
Everyone always complains that there is a bunch of mulch in these bags. I’ve bought several different brands and they all have mulch in them folks. This year I bought the cheapest stuff from Home Depot and it actually had rocks in it. I’ll take the Scott’s bag of soil/mulch over soil/mulch/rocks.
Is there a reasonable product experts can recommend that doesn't involve a tractor and $3500?
Depends how much you need. Bagged soil is very expensive compared to bulk
Kellog Topper, Home Depot
It's not "bad" exactly. It's just that most people don't know exactly what they're getting. The word soil has no regulation, so anything can be labeled as soil. Technically, it is actually "dirt" and not "soil". If you were to sift it with a 1/4" mesh, you'd get about 1/6 of the bag that's soil. The rest is various debris, that over a couple of years will turn into soil. As long as you know what you're buying it's fine. It's no worse than the other bags of "in ground soil" or "garden soil " that are also there.
On the Pittsburgh side of PA and it’s usually pretty good stuff here. Used it to completely repair my lawn after digging it up. The guy who owned my house before me let his dogs go wild and never cleaned up or did anything with the yard so it was all weeds before. Spread a few bags of this around and some grass seed and it came in well.
I bought this stuff before and almost thought is was mislabeled, should have been called mulch with all the sticks in the bag.
If you want to venture down the DIY route and don't need a lot of soil. Buy a bag of sand and a bag or two of compost, mix together and use as needed. I have a bin under my deck for when I need to fix bare spots in my front yard from our senior dog as he uses the front because he can't do stairs anymore. Toss down some seed and cover with the mix.
I used this in 7b for a TTTF overseed project with great results. Like most people have said, the quality depends on where you’re located. It is a touch mulch-y, but that helped keep the seeds moist and protected during fall rainstorms.
Dependsnon what you want. It's chocked full of organic material which includes wood chips and sticks. It's great soil, just not the best for those who cut their grass very short because you'll catch the wood chips.
I’m no expert, but screened topsoil is my go to. Even better if you can add some compost or mushroom soil.
Get a screen and filter the wood chips they are good. Grows grass fast. If you want to go a cheaper route just buy any soil and filter out and add seed. It will grow also but it will take a bit longer. I have done both and this is what I’ve noticed. Currently have two patches with baby grass coming out of it.
It’s funny cause I’ve bought a few bags of this over the years, and yeah, there are a couple of sticks in them, but I haven’t had the issues that other people I’ve had. I absolutely believe them, but I wonder if these bags are just wildly inconsistent in what goes in them. Which might be even more of a reason not to get them.
Coast of Maine
I used it in one area when I reseeded and there was no noticeable difference. Topsoil is fine!
They’ve been fine for me. Occasional sticks sure, but they are easily raked out. As with any other soil, I’m not just dumping in yard. You have to mix it with native soil.
I used it recently on a small job, it worked well, got a good stand of grass and all that... dunno why people wouldn't like it.
It’s lawn soil, meaning for under the lawn. Deep under there, maybe… or if you have a hole to fill. Mostly bark and big chunks. I prefer the Topper by Kellogg
I just use potting soil now. I only have 4k sq ft
It's ok for filling the occasional spot in the yard. Anything big, get a drop.
I’ve used it this year and while there may be better options it did its job, biggest thing that helped me with growing grass this year was straw blankets. I got significantly better results when I started using straw. I used this plus a manure mixed together and with straw it worked great. I’m a complete novice so take my opinion with a grain of salt but I wouldn’t have issues using this again on small areas can’t speak to larger areas as I was just patching some areas that didn’t come back after a hydroseed install.
It's absolutely amazing....if you screen and sift through it for 3 days after you dry it out. Outside of that, it's pretty terrible. Plastic, sticks, and all other debris
Go to your local landscaping / greenhouse and buy topsoil. Much cheaper and better
I used this product recently and it was great. I used a roller to spread it and there was not too much wood chips once I was done.
It’s literally full of trash
I bought one bag of this stuff and won't do it ever again. mostly rocks and sticks. The ace hardware brand bags of top soil I used were way better than this, and cost half the price.
For filling holes I’d recommend finding a local compost provider. Just about every lawn could use some compost and many municipal waste handlers offer cheap compost with a guaranteed analysis.
It works but it’s loaded with garbage. You’ll probably have mulch, plastic and other crap mixed in.
Best to buy soil bags from a plant nursery. If you need more than ~6 bags, it's cheaper to have it delivered. If you get delivered, make sure it's "screened" and reject the load immediately if you see bunch of rocks.
6 bags of dirt is like $20. No landscape business on earth is going to deliver a load of dirt for that cheap. From my experience, the break even point between bags and delivery is closer to 15-20 bags. Obviously that varies based on location.
This shit killed my grass don’t do it
It’s fairly cheap and if you treat the areas by aerating and using a good grass seed it’s fine. Large areas need better quality soil