[vineweevil1]

Saw an advert in local paper for £10 / tonne topsoil.   Would this be OK to use in raising some of my beds?  Would a tonne go far?

[Bear]

It's a good price - but depends on the quality of it and how much other stuff like stones etc is in it.

a tonne of topsoil would be a bit under a cubic metre, less if full of stones or really heavy clay soil. if you spread out a cubic metre to a depth of 12 ins (30cms) then you would cover an area approx 3m x 1m.

[Trillium]

Bear is right. A member last year got in a load of topsoil and it turned out to be absolute junk, full of garbage and almost dead. The seller was cagey in calling it topsoil. Mostly he wanted to clear out useless soil so he simply called it topsoil. The member had no choice but to slowly remove it, so do have a look at it first. If the seller won't let you look, don't buy.
Topsoil in itself isn't the best really as there are various grades, few of which have much nutrition for plants. Even if it turns out to be nice stuff, you'll still have to add lots of manure and humus to feed the soil.

[senrab_nhoj]

i filled my beds with a screened mix from Dandy

75% topsoil 25% chickend and horse manure and everything at home is growing like a bomb

[Scribbler]

You'll need to enrich the topsoil with some manure from a friendly farmer or riding stables, and this will need to be well rotted. You can tell if it's well rotted by the smell. ie it shouldn't smell of poo.

[lincspoacher]

If you want to use topsoil to grow stuff in, you need screened and even better, sterilised topsoil.

The main reason topsoil is sold in bulk is to fill out gardens in newly built housing estates,  so they arent too bothered.

Screening takes out the rock and stones, and sterilising is usually done by heat or microwave.

Theres nothing to stop you making up a growing medium mix, for example loam (top soil), sand, and something to enrich it, like manure or a CRF.  Im sure stuff like spuds or peas would grow fabulously in top soil.