Imported soil (anthroposol) to new home, Warragul, Victoria, Australia

Description: anthroposol (man-altered/made soil)
Imported topsoil of dry, light grey sandy loam over
clay – with solid clay lumps, crumbly, with larger clumps,
and remnant bits of building debris from house construction.
underlain by a rich red/chocolate brown volcanic soil

Location:             Very gently sloping slightly south-facing hillside
– in a new housing estate of a regional town.

Values for this soil:
– Residential garden – , predominantly lawn and a couple of garden beds
– Aesthetics in making a new house a home with greenery around it growing from the soil

Challenges inherited from this anthroposol and landscapers’ management of it for the new home garden:
Loss of good topsoil in the building and landscaping process:
1 farmland soil reshaped and compacted by building and machinery for housing development, then
2 landscapers imported a topsoil and spread it to a depth of 10-15 cm with a bob-cat,
3 but the new topsoil  still contained remnant builder’s debris,
4 Over summer, it released a sour odour,
and it dried
and blew as dust –
5 After summer the landscapers sowed it with lawn seed, and it was watered regularly
but only poor and patchy lawn grew
6 Reason  – a poor quality imported soil
requiring remediations so far, with partial success:

Specific challenges of this poor anthroposol  – and target managements :
– hard lumps – gypsum to break down the lumps,
– non-wetting/ water repelling- a wetting agent,
– low fertility – a weeder/feeder, and a slow release fertilizer

See more about issues and values of soils in new urban gardens at these Soil Selfies:
– housing renewal with garden under construction in this Box Hill, Soil Selfies from Victoria
– a heavy clay garden on the rural- fringe in this Sunbury, Soil Selfies from Victoria
– another poor ‘new’ soil in a new housing estate brought to life with food scraps compost in this Horsham  from the Wimmera Mallee
– a new garden in rural- fringe housing estate in a town in this Somme  Soil Selfies from France

Credits: Permission given for these photos and information to be used under a (cc) license 2015 .
Edited and page created by Jeanie Clark, enviroed4all®, Warracknabeal, for use in education under a (cc) licence 2015

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page set up 25 November 2015