buying topsoil

Dear All,

I've been thinking that next year I'll buy some topsoil to put on my beds, but am wondering now if it's not too late to do it this year?

I took over the plot last year and am really enjoying it. but the ground is terribly coarse and stony, and I was thinking that a judicious couple of inches on my beds might help them along.

I've got 3 beds which are edged with scaffold boards but are not 'raised beds' in that they haven't had any soil put into them, and the scaffold boards just define the edges. They are each about 20 feet long and a couple of feet wide.

So:
1. Could I fill these till there was just an inch or so of board left? This would mean I'd be putting a couple of inches of topsoil on each of them. Is this enough to make a difference?

2. Should I just pour on the top soil, or is it worth adding lots of compost/manure too, and digging it in?

3. How much should I pay? I've seen a package of about a metre cubed, and I reckon that would do the 3 beds, with perhaps a little left over for when I can find some scaffold boards to edge the other beds.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Keep a check on Freecycle as,certainly in this area there is always some on offer.

just be carefull of getting top soil from any tom dick or harry as it could contain some bad stuff like knot weed,mares tail and stuff like like that also you dont know what chemicals could be in it ,if you do buy it from a top soil merchant then 9 times out of ten it would have been screened and sometimes they put it through heat to kill any seeds or roots.

Keep a check on Freecycle as,certainly in this area there is always some on offer.

 :roll:
Hey Annie, what's this Freecycle?

Shaun, do we have this in Wirral/E/port?

Jim

yes jim but not as we know it
its on yahoo mate you have to join yahoo 1st