Screened topsoil, garden mixes, mushroom compost and fill, sold by the cubic yard and delivered across Edmonton. Every batch is tested for clay, silt, sand content and pH. Prices are published below, because you should not have to fill in a form to learn what a yard of soil costs.
Six soils, four working demonstrations. This is what you're actually buying — shown, not described.
Around Edmonton most people call screened topsoil black dirt, and some call it loam. It is the same product. Every yard goes over the screen deck: the fines pass through, the rocks, roots and lumps roll off the end. What comes off is fine, dark and even, and it is what goes under new sod, fixes low spots and top dresses a tired lawn. Unscreened skips the deck and comes straight off the pile at $7 a yard, which is the right call for fill and rough grading where nobody will see it. We would rather sell you the cheaper one and have you come back.
Garden mix is built, not dug, and both of ours are blended to a set recipe rather than shovelled together. Garden Mix is three parts topsoil to one part compost and one part sand, which suits lawns and larger areas. Garden Mix #1 is one part of each, so it carries far more compost and is what you want in flower beds, vegetable gardens and raised beds. Flip the ratio below to see the difference. Because the recipe is fixed, the bed you fill this year matches the one you filled last year.
Our compost is mushroom compost, sourced locally from the Edmonton area. It is the straightforward way to add organic matter to soil that has gone tired or packed hard. This matters more here than people expect: Environment and Climate Change Canada puts Edmonton at 434 mm of precipitation a year, of which only 324 mm falls as rain, and the average frost-free period at 105 days. Soil that can hold a drink through a short season is not a luxury. Work it into an existing bed, mix it into heavy clay ground a bit each year, or spread a thin layer over a lawn in spring. It is rarely used on its own for a whole bed.
Tailings are the honest end of the price list. Five dollars a yard of bulk fill for building up ground, backfilling and raising a level before the good soil goes on top. It is not for growing anything and we will not pretend otherwise. On most jobs the bottom two thirds does not need to be better than this, and paying topsoil prices to fill a hole is money buried in the ground. Put screened topsoil or a garden mix on the top few inches where roots will actually live.
Pick up at any open site, or have it dropped where the job is. Two ways to get it there:
Questions about our soil
Screened topsoil has been run over a screen deck to take out rock, root and clumps, so it is fine and even. Use it where it will be seen or planted into. Unscreened is $7 a yard and is right for fill and rough grading.
Garden Mix is three parts topsoil to one part compost and one part sand, and suits lawns and larger areas. Garden Mix #1 carries much more compost and suits flower beds, vegetable gardens and raised beds.
Tailings at $5 a yard, which is fill and not for planting. The cheapest soil you would actually grow something in is unscreened topsoil at $7 a yard.
All our soils are tested for clay, silt, sand content and pH levels, and copies of the testing are available on request. Clay and sand decide how the soil drains and how hard it packs. pH decides whether plants can take up nutrients.
No, and we will not claim otherwise. City Soil Services does not guarantee weed free topsoil or garden mix, because we cannot screen out existing weed seeds and we cannot control the wind.
No. We sell in bulk by the cubic yard, delivered or picked up. Bulk is far cheaper per litre than bagged soil once you need more than a few bags.