Unused Topsoil

[Nutcracker]

I ordered 20 ton of river bottom topsoil to add to my garden and maybe some bad spots in my lawn. I probably will have some left over. This may be a dumb question, but how should I store it? Should I cover it with a big tarp or just let it weeds and stuff grow in it and some of will get washed away. Thanks

 

[MossRoad]

If you paid for it, you want to keep it clean of weeds. Great soil will get weedy pretty quick. I'd tarp it.

 

[jyoutz]

If it’s river bottom soil it has lots of plant seeds already in the mix.

 

[Gee Ray]

Next to my warehouse was a company that welded rolls of plastic together to make the big sheets for billboards. Much stronger than the blue tarps. They last much longer than a blue tarps. Check on craigslist or Facebook for a source and use them to cover your pile of topsoil.

 

[jaxs]

I would spread it and use it until i need it. Reason being that it can be kept viable or even improved from cultivation and amendments.

 

[Jstpssng]

Level it, plant a cover crop and keep turning it under.

 

[Nutcracker]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[seville009]

I clean out a little detention pond every few years when it gets dry enough; has great soil. I just put it in a pile off to the side to dry good and let stuff grow on it. When I need some, I just turn it over and fluff it up with the loader.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

When the highway department (around here anyway) needs to keep soil back for a project they leave it in a pile and let nature take its course. I suspect that’s the best way to keep it from washing away. Honestly, I would find a place to use it. If someone brought me 5 tons of good soil right now I would have no problem deciding what to do with it.

 

[rScotty]

I ordered 20 ton of river bottom topsoil to add to my garden and maybe some bad spots in my lawn. I probably will have some left over. This may be a dumb question, but how should I store it? Should I cover it with a big tarp or just let it weeds and stuff grow in it and some of will get washed away. Thanks

We have had a lot of rebuilding to get things to grow after a flood.
I've ordered 7 to 30 cubic yards of each of several materials at a time to work from over the last 5 years
Clay dirt, feed lot sand, road base, gravel, lots of pine chip mulch, black bio-mulch, pure top soil, and garden planting mix which is a little of all the above mixed in with some top soil.

Right now I have some of each one of those piles left.

The top soil & garden soil is new this spring, and I noticed that the pure top soil blows away although the garden mix doesn't. So I did tarp the windward side & over the top with some old torn cotton tarps weighted with rocks. We have plenty of rocks..... You are right. Dry topsoil blows away. I've also learned NOT to try to load, work, and spread dry topsoil on a windy day. I just lose too much, the tractor is coated with it and so am I. A few inches of snow last week did help put a crust onto that topsoil pile.

All the other piles are just sitting there open and have not changed in size or anything as far as I can tell. The heavy clay soil grows lots of weeds. None of the others seem to have many weeds. The mulch piles surprised me when I opened them up this year I found they had attracted a lot of roots from nearby trees - particularly willows - and also had lots of white mold inside busilty changing mulch into black dirt.. I thought the mulch piles would blow away if anything would but they don't seem to move at all.

rScotty