What do you do with extra dirt?

When I'm planting things I always end up with extra dirt, and I never know what to do with it. I don't really want to have a dirt pile in my yard and I don't want to build any hills or slopes for planting. So what can I do with all the extra dirt?

Hi Passiflora, not really sure what you mean by extra dirt, from what you say, you seem to have loads of it so maybe your digging out a long trench and wondering what to do.
When I dig out a long trench to plant a long border, I normally dig the trench, toss some organic matter in the bottom, place the shrubs / plants into the trench and then back-fill the trench making sure I work the soil I dug out back into the same hole, firm it around each plants roots with my hand as I go, there is never that amount left after this, if I have a slight high area, I just use the rake ot my hand to scatter it evenly over the surface of the bed / border and after a few weeks of watering in new plants I cant say there is a huge difference in hight from before I started. IF your planting just the odd shrub / plant, then I just use my fingers after planting to gently disperse the soil around the planting hole to level the soil as I go as before. However, if you have dug out a new bed and mixed with the soil is garden debris, stones, weeds and all the roots from weeds, then you will end up with a huge pile of muck etc, this is harder to get rid off and in these circumstances, you may need to bag this up and dispose of it by taking it to your local dump where there is normally a place for this type of garbage. If all my thoughts and ideas are wrong, please get back to me with further info as to why you are left with so much extra soil so I or someone else can get back to you. good luck. WeeNel.

Even with adding top soil, peat moss, and sand, in addition to mulch and organic material form the compost pile, the level of my garden keeps sinking. After 5+ years, it is almost back to the same height as the surrounding yard. Actually, I'd prefer to have a raised bed, but at this rate, I have several years to go.

Was your soil heavily compacted?

I agree with WeeNel - mix it up and use as a top dressing. The organics in it should be good for the plants.

I agree too. I know what you mean, though, because when I started I wondered the same thing, what is going to happen with all this dirt, LOL! Whenever I dug into the ground and did anything it seemed there was some dirt left over.

I usually just put it around the plant or area I was working like WeeNel says, and I quickly learned, it sinks back in. Whenever you dig, you aerate that volume of soil greatly and it takes it a while to settle back -- gravity will do it.

Thanks, all! This is starting to make sense. I will give these methods a try...

Depending on how much dirt left over there is, we have a bin in our garden for soil and stuff. It's tucked away in the corner so it doesn't impact on the garden at all.

You can always send your extra dirt to me.

Deb...that might be my backup plan!

I've always wondered who has all the dirt.

...as long as you pay UPS...

Seriously, though, even after adding the supplements I've NEVER had extra dirt even though it seems like it immediately after digging around in it. On occasion I've sort of mounded the 'extra' into, like, a moat that circles the plant, thinking it would help direct rainwater toward the plant. The mounded moat never seems to last more than a few rains before it's the same level as the surrounding ground - thus, I never really have extra.

Cathy: now that I think about it...I mean REALLY think about it...I've determined that most of my dirt ends up in my washing machine and shower drain.

mine too, and on the floor or in the vacuum. I just love being covered in dirt. Yesterday I spread newspapers on the kitchen floor and filled some large pots with dirt. It is too early to plant in them, but I needed a fix, hah!

I find this language offensive.Please don't use the D word.Its soil folks.Only non-gardeners use the D word.LOL.Thank-you,Edge

Oh, I don't know, I was just learning about an organization called Women of Dirt, members being those who work with the soil in one way or another..... I kind of like dirt myself.

But I know what you mean and honestly, I was appalled when I went to a local garden center last fall and talked with the person working there about lasagna garden bed prep and she was saying, that will not work because, you don't have any DIRT in it. You have to have DIRT.

I considered asking her just what she meant by "dirt" but decided, instead, to be kind.

;-)

tomato-tomahto :-D

I am going to let my ignorance shine here....what is the difference between "soil" and "dirt"?

LOL! Attitude?

IMO it is soil when we are paying attention to it in a respectful way that is concerned with the details of its composition -- as good gardeners do. It is dirt when we are not thinking about it much, or are disregarding it as "just dirt", or are considering it as simply its earthy substantial self in an earthy way, regardless of its finer qualities.

My two cents. ;-)

However, the derivation of the words is interesting: "dirt" came from a word that meant "excrement" whereas "soil" came from a word meaning "floor or ground". But they are used interchangeably for the most part (except as described above) and the modern definition of each includes the other...... (I just now looked that up.)

The garden center employee I mentioned in my earlier post obviously was not a gardener, however...... yet, though I did disagree with her, I also appreciated her point of view.

To me it's soil when it's in the garden, and it's dirt when the dog and I track it into the house! LOL

See? Attitude, like I said. hee hee

Kind of like how if you like having it in your garden it's a wildflower but if you don't want it, it's a weed!

When I buy it, whether by the bag or truck load, it is soil. When I have to dig it you better believe the same stuff becomes dirt. :-)

I do raised beds and if I don't add more ummmm...soil....every year I would end up with sunken beds. I compost and even save the material from all my annual pots to refresh my beds.

Yes, ecrane, LOL! I once had a client who would bray to anyone who would listen to him that a weed was any plant he had not paid for.

MichaelZ, I guess you have solved that problem posed by the thread starter then..... ;-)

You guys are funny. I read the first question and thought "s/he has EXTRA??" lol Boy I could some extra dirt.....er...soil.

I agree, same reaction...whhhaaaat? Aren't we usually tearing out our lawns to get to more???

I do the same thing with annual pots MichaelZ does, I throw it in my composter. Depending on how much you have, compost bin, mix with compost and use as a mulch, or mix with compost and make a new bed...YAY!

Or if all else fails put the pile in your front yard with a little "free dirt ( / soil)" sign and if there are gardeners around it will be gone by morning ;)

I also have extra garden soil left over when I plant or replant a plant. I save it in a garbage container and mix humus, manure and peatmoss to improve it. My natural soil tend to have clay. This way, I alway have "good" soil handy to use when I plant. Also use it as a filler where the surface of my border sinks.

That's a good idea, blomma

Hmmm, I might actually have some extra dirt this spring. I need to amend some really nasty clay with no topsoil that's bordered by asphalt and cement. I was thinking of digging and dumping some of it to make room for good stuff, but don't have anywhere to dump it. But now I'm going to pull a couple of (hideous) bushes out so maybe that will make up for it. It's has to be level or slightly below the pavement so the mulch that the "landscapers" will inevitably blow all over the place doesn't wash off on the driveways.

Maybe I could make pots. Anybody got a kiln I can borrow?

I fill up the holes our Golden Retriever makes in the backyard. He looks at me like "that's ok, I'll make more". I can never figure out how or why when he digs a hole there is never ever anything left to fill it up with. What's he do with it?!

This message was edited Mar 10, 2009 8:21 PM

LOL! I grew up with a dog that dug holes to sleep in. Now that I think about it I don't recall ever seeing any extra dirt either!
Mysterious!

Babeegirl: they artfully spread it around in the grass next to the hole! I have 2 diggers and they drive me nuts! Someone told me to backfill the holes, and put dogpoop in it as well. They'll stop digging in THAT spot, and if you do that to every hole, they'll eventually get the point... well, if all else fails, you've got your dogpoop buried and "composting"...

funny, I used our old golden retriever to help dig out an old evergreen bush years ago, at our old house. In 5 minutes he had a huge hole dug up around the thing, exposing all the roots. Of course he wanted to lie (lay?) there after. I don't know where all that dirt went either, flew around the yard I guess.

Thank goodness my golden doesn't dig. He eats everything in sight, but he doesn't dig.

Soil - Dirt whatever you prefer to call it I can never have enough.And rocks,never enough rocks.

Synda, You want rocks?

My golden didn't dig much after her escape at all cost phase. But she did insist on making a bed somewhere in the yard. For her last years she was happy to mash down a plot of lavender for warm sunny day napping. I was happy to give her a place to sleep that she liked, and she smelled good to boot. :~) Z

Yes Big Rocks and I'm not talking diamonds.I want them around my flower beds,my little pond any where.I like little rocks and stones to.

Synda I feel your pain! I drive my husband crazy with my rock-want! I made him drive me 1/2 hour to my sister's place (she has 10 acres in the hills) and get me as big rocks as he could lift. This after buying 4 pallets of fieldstone and building stone walls. I can't explain why I love rocks. My sister has this huge rock in her yard that looks like a table...oh boy what I could do with that!

Lynnie any time we go anywhere I'll see huge boulders...LOL along the road ,even the freway and I'll whine(I want those rocks,just like a kid in a toy store).I had my hubbt drag rocks from the bank across the road with his riding mower,they were too big to pick up....LOL
When I was a little girl momma said she alway had to check my pockets of my pants because there would stones in there that I found and thought were so beautiful.

Ooooo, that is a good rock.

Yuou should see people driving by,gawking at us like we have totally lost our minds....LOL.