I recently had a friend by a soil mix from St. Louis Composting. It was supposed to be a mix of 50% top soil and 50% compost. She ended up getting big clumps of clay in the soil and I was disappointed in the mix. There response was this, “With the wet winter and now wet spring, it has been hard for us to pull soil out of our fields. This has led us to go to other sources of receiving the material.” Their new source seems to be more clay than anything like topsoil.
I also went to Grants View library community gardens. They have just completed their raised beds and were also filled with those large boulder like clay clumps. Gateway Greening ordered the same Garden Mix which was supposed to be 50/50 said, “They have a huge facility, so there are always variables in my experience.”
The lesson learned is this.
Go to the source of your soil and check it out before you buy it. Look at it, feel it and check the quality of what they are going to send you.
After they dump the soil on your lot, it’s too late to do anything about it. Check out the soil or soil and compost combination ahead of time and make sure they get exactly what you want.
Note – St. Louis Composting also has a product called SLC Raised Bed Mix which might be better, but is more expensive.
Butterfly Gardening 