Exactly. When I resodded our front lawn I kept finding building materials. I guess it’s common for construction workers to bury the trash when building a house rather than dispose of it correctly.
Unfortunately you may need someone with a disc harrow or tiller to help the first time. It’s not preferred but I’ve no other ideas. Maybe Solar Punk does?
Which I would totally do if I had more than a 1/4 acre, most of which is taken up with a house and other structures. Getting a tractor and harrow out here for an 800 sq ft garden doesn’t make sense. I’ll probably do raised beds this year.
I can’t wait until I can move back to the country. The suburbs are the absolute worst.
I mean paying someone to borrow their/ till may be less expensive? That said, I like raised bed too. Easier to manage. Right now I’m looking at permaculture but not sure if I’m cut out for it.
I’m not planning on being here in four years so it doesn’t make sense to do anything that would make the house look “weird” and make it harder to sell.
Do people in this thread really think the developer took the topsoil and sold it to someone else?
Bitch, please. Topsoil isn’t valuable enough to strip and truck somewhere. The tiny layer we humans can grow food in is just that thin in a large part of North America.
Even if you have soil, in a whole lot of cities/municipalities/counties… there are zoning restrictions on growing certain amounts and kinds of plants/vegetables.
And HOAs. They all have their own restrictions as well.
Wanna collect rainwater?
Regulations on that too.
Wanna start a compost bin?
Well your neighbor can complain it smells bad in the summer. Might attract dangerous critters.
Hell, probably just laying down a sufficient amount of top soil might be enough to get a visit from an HOA rep or a county zoning wonk.
Grass (the trimmed always green lawn type) is more demanding than many other crops. If the grass is growing there, then the topsoil is good enough for some other things too.
Also the topsoil is something you can develop, especially on such small scale as personal garden. Make compost, grow less demanding plants first nad your soil will get better. You can grow things on sand mixed with a bit of compost.
Can’t grow anything but grass because they stripped off all the topsoil from the land that used to be a farm.
If you want a garden you need to buy soil
Exactly. When I resodded our front lawn I kept finding building materials. I guess it’s common for construction workers to bury the trash when building a house rather than dispose of it correctly.
Every time I dig on my land I get two maybe three inches of topsoil and then the hardest goddamn clay I’ve ever encountered
Unfortunately you may need someone with a disc harrow or tiller to help the first time. It’s not preferred but I’ve no other ideas. Maybe Solar Punk does?
Which I would totally do if I had more than a 1/4 acre, most of which is taken up with a house and other structures. Getting a tractor and harrow out here for an 800 sq ft garden doesn’t make sense. I’ll probably do raised beds this year.
I can’t wait until I can move back to the country. The suburbs are the absolute worst.
I mean paying someone to borrow their/ till may be less expensive? That said, I like raised bed too. Easier to manage. Right now I’m looking at permaculture but not sure if I’m cut out for it.
Alternate take, fix your 1/4 acre the natural way if you’re gonna be there a while.
Start a compost pile.
Aerate, plant clover, spread compost every year, plant a native tree or two and native plants underneath.
No need to till, just slowly amend.
I’m not planning on being here in four years so it doesn’t make sense to do anything that would make the house look “weird” and make it harder to sell.
My guy you’re complaining about a problem you’re part of the cause of then.
Trees are weird? A healthy lawn is weird?
Why complain if you have the environment you want 🤷
Because I want to make as much of a profit on this house as possible so I can move somewhere I can see the stars again
You’re assuming that I want to stay in the suburbs when the least of my complaints is the lack of topsoil
Do people in this thread really think the developer took the topsoil and sold it to someone else?
Bitch, please. Topsoil isn’t valuable enough to strip and truck somewhere. The tiny layer we humans can grow food in is just that thin in a large part of North America.
Deal with it.
They do though. They rip it all up and sell it off when they’re doing construction.
Source: used to work in commercial landscaping. Which on new jobsites involves bringing in new soil to replace the soil that’s gone.
That being said, there are places in the US where there isn’t much topsoil to begin with, it’s true.
jokes on you, here in the south the top soil is old swap and sometimes actual farm top soil, it is indeed bagged and sold off sometimes
Even if you have soil, in a whole lot of cities/municipalities/counties… there are zoning restrictions on growing certain amounts and kinds of plants/vegetables.
And HOAs. They all have their own restrictions as well.
Wanna collect rainwater?
Regulations on that too.
Wanna start a compost bin?
Well your neighbor can complain it smells bad in the summer. Might attract dangerous critters.
Hell, probably just laying down a sufficient amount of top soil might be enough to get a visit from an HOA rep or a county zoning wonk.
As a German this amount of regulations, rules and bureaucracy astonishes me :D
Im Germany, there might be similar regulations for collecting rain water or having a compost depending on your commune.
Grass (the trimmed always green lawn type) is more demanding than many other crops. If the grass is growing there, then the topsoil is good enough for some other things too. Also the topsoil is something you can develop, especially on such small scale as personal garden. Make compost, grow less demanding plants first nad your soil will get better. You can grow things on sand mixed with a bit of compost.