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Buying soil for first hugelkultur

 
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Hello, sorry this may be a very beginner question, but I am setting up my first hugelkultur in my back yard.  So far I've layered old logs/twigs and old leaves, so now I believe I'm ready to add soil and compost.

I called a local place that composts nearby and they sell a mix of topsoil and compost, but they told me they add sand.  They said they think it's 20% sand, which sounded like quite a bit to me.  

My question is, should I find another company that has topsoil/compost with less/no sand, or is this acceptable?

Not sure if this matters, but soil below is just regular soil, which is not very sandy where I live.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
gardener
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From what I've been reading, loam is the ideal soil we are/would be optimally trying for, and loam is about 40% sand. So I myself wouldn't be concerned that there is too much sand if I were buying that soil.

What seems to be the most important thing is the amount of organic material in the soil available for your new plants to use, so you'll want to do compost/compost teas on it as soon as you get it to your place.  Then time and nature will transform the bed into an amazing thing.
 
steward
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20% sand doesn't sound too bad to me.  How much is compost and how much is topsoil? Does it have any clay mixed in?

Does your local area not have a company that sells dirt?  Usually, some rock companies also sell dirt as it is a byproduct of the rock.

Where we used to live we could get rich sandy loam and also a "garden mix" that the company put together, especially for gardens.

I miss living in a larger area that has dirt, compose, etc for sale.

We made our own soil when we moved here by mixing clay that was on our property, leaf mold we found under trees, and bags of garden soil and well composed manure.
 
gardener
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I harvested (with permission) a decayed leaf and sand mixture from the top of a sand bar that was about to be removed in 2020 and it was a great addition to my newly built beds.  I'm guesstimating it was 20-30% sand. The bed I used for sweet potatoes that year consisted mostly of this mixture and I had a great yield!
 
pollinator
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Hugelkultur is a very old technique that was traditionally used as a system to create soil in areas where there is very little or poor quality top soil.

It is primarily a soil generating system. With this knowledge, it follows that the soil you use in making a hugel bed isn't really important in the big picture context.

If you're constructing them for a different context then soil quality may be important.
 
Greg Bee
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Thank you all for the feedback.  It sounds like 20% should be fine.  My concern was that it would potentially cause water to drain too fast past the logs/leaves/etc.  

I believe mix is 20% sand, 35% compost, 45% topsoil.  

Appreciate the help a lot!
 
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