Tips on buying topsoil.... Fantastic claims? It may pay to dig a little deeper.

When I studied geography at school topsoil was described as the thin layer of weathered material at the earth surface in which plants grew, if asked, most people would probably describe topsoil in a similar way. It's the natural earth under our feet, it's what we see in the farmer's fields, that's topsoil.. right?  Wrong.

There are topsoil suppliers out there (some well known) blending all sorts of different things and labelling the resulting product as topsoil, things like -

• Vegetable washings
• Sewage waste
• Skip waste
• Construction waste
• Sawdust
• Timber fines
• Slurry
• Quarry & mining spoil 
• River & canal dredgings

The resulting blends are marketed and sold as topsoil and I would guess that many customers believe they are buying natural topsoil, unaware they are buying nothing of the sort. The confusion in the market place can lead to suppliers making fantastic claims, for example, "up to 50% more product when compared with ordinary topsoil". This claim only works if you compare different things, but suggest they are the same.

So how can a supplier make such a claim? Easy, by blending two products together which are lighter than topsoil, let's say green waste compost and sawdust. Because the resulting mix is lighter than topsoil it could provide up to 50% more product. However, if we look at this from a different perspective it could be claimed that the natural topsoil provides 100% more topsoil than the green waste/sawdust mix.

Products being sold as topsoil which aren't really topsoil make it very difficult for buyers to compare like for like and without specialist knowledge it is almost impossible to make an informed decision. If your topsoil supplier is making fantastic claims, it may pay to dig a little deeper.