Saturday, May 17, 2008

Dirt costs *how* much???

Went to Richie Feed and Seed today to get a quote on some soil. We are turning most of our backyard into a vegetable and fruit garden and our soil is a bit questionable (potential contamination) so we are creating some raised beds.

Turns out for the amount of soil we require it will cost us somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800.

I'm sorry? What? Run that by me again... Did you say $800????

<picks herself up off the floor>

Ok then.

I need to come up with a new plan.

I'm thinking of getting a truckload full of compost from the Trail Waste Facility. But I need more than just compost to make me some soil.

I better get investigating because my seedlings are ready to get planted.

Also I bought 3 new tomato plants at the organic farmers' market this morning. One is an heirloom variety called 'Brandywine' and the other two are a yellow cherry variety (not sure of the name) that I know is the most delicious I've ever had because I bought oodles of them last summer at the market.

Ooo and I had a look at my gooseberry plants this morning and they have gooseberries on them! Quite exciting as this is year one for them in the garden so I wasn't expecting them to fruit.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

I don't know much about dirt, except that I often see it free on craigslist or freecycle...don't know if it's the right type or not?

Rachel said...

That's a great tip! Thanks Melissa. I'm going to log onto my local freecycle site now and see what's there. :-)

Hit Pay Dirt said...

hey there green grrl :)

i hear we have one degree of separation between us! the blogging world get smaller every day.
see you online! :)

gillian

Urban Girl said...

Yeah, our soil is contaminated also. I put in a small raised bed last year (and ordered the dirt from Ritchie's) but the squirrels pulled out all my bean plants and my tomatoes took over most of the space. I did manage to grow a couple of zucs and use some of my basil... am hoping for a more successful year in 2010! : )