There are quite a few things to consider when you landscape for the first time. Although the landscaper you work alongside will be able to help you with most things, it’s worth thinking about the essentials on your own as well.
One thing we get asked a lot is if you need to replace your soil when you’re landscaping with a landscaper. Ultimately, that’s a difficult question, so we’ve decided to go into it in more detail in this article.
Why Would I Add New Soil?
Ultimately, there are a few reasons why you should consider adding new soil to your garden when you’re landscaping. These include:
- To improve your current soil. If you’re planning to plant things like vegetables or greedy plants that need a lot of nutrients, then you need to make sure you have decent soil.
- To level uneven areas. At the same time, a lot of people add soil to their gardens and lawns to level them out. If your garden hasn’t been well looked after, the chances are that it won’t be super level.
- To improve drainage or water retention. If your current soil mix results in it either draining away too fast or becoming waterlogged after even a small amount of rain, you can add different types of soil to improve it.
Note that there are numerous other reasons why you might add new soil during the landscaping process.
How Do I Know What Sort of Soil to Add?
In reality, it can be quite difficult to decide exactly what sort of soil to add to your gardens. Unless you have a decent amount of gardening experience, we’d always recommend speaking with your landscaper to ensure you’re getting things right.
Additionally, you need to identify your goals and what you’re trying to achieve with your gardens. If you’re trying to grow vegetables like tomatoes or pumpkins, which require a lot of nutrients, your soil mix will need to be different than if you’re trying to grow natives.
How Do I Know If I Actually Need to Add Soil?
Well, for starters, you will need to identify your goals and what you want to achieve. Then, you will need to do some research to determine what sort of soil you should have to achieve these goals.
As you can imagine, this can be quite a complicated process. If you want to do it on your own, you can buy soil testing kits from your local hardware store or nursery, but it’s difficult. Alternatively, you should consider speaking with your local landscaping company and getting them to help.
Final Word
Deciding whether or not you need to add soil to your gardens when you’re landscaping can be difficult. However, a little research will help you a lot, especially if you are someone who knows a little about plants and gardening.
On the other hand, the easiest thing to do will be to ask your local landscaping contractor to sort it out for you. After all, landscaping, in general, is difficult, and we always recommend getting it done by a professional anyway.