topsoil calculator. how to estimate topsoil needs

2. How to Improve
your Topsoil
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3. Step One
Dig your Soil Over - digging your
topsoil over improves the soil in
many ways, it aerates the
soil, mixes organic matter into the
soil and moves leached nutrients
back up into the root zone as well
as breaking it up to make the soil
easier for roots to penetrate and
therefore grow.
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4. Step Two
Add more organic matter
Add organic matter in the form of
mushroom compost or soil
improver, this will add nutrients and
improve the soil structure. Organic
matter is a vital element in a good
quality topsoil, it holds essential plant
nutrients close to the plant root
system, locks in moisture and help break
up heavy soils.
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5. Step Three - Mulching
Mulching is the process of covering the soil
surface with a ground cover material, this
material can take the form of bark
chippings, leaf mould or compost. The
benefits of mulching are to increase soil
temperatures (mulching keeps the heat
in), decrease evaporation of moisture
(therefore keeping plants well watered), and
if you use a compost as a mulch you benefit
from slow releasing nutrients feeding the soil.
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6. How do I Calculate Volume?
It is easiest to calculate volume in
cubic metres or litres. To do this
simply measure the length, width
and depth of the area you need to
fill with soil in metres and multiply
the three figures together to get
the volume in cubic metres.
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7. So… how many tonnes to the cubic metre?
As a general rule a tonne of screened topsoil equals
around 750 litres (0.75 cubic metres) or 1.3 tonnes to
the cubic metre.
It should be noted that blended topsoil may be less
dense and therefore closer to 900 litres or even 1 cubic
metre to the tonne.
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8. Now simply divide the volume
in cubic metres by the cubic
metre per tonne figure.
If I need 9 cubic metre of
screened topsoil.
9 divided by 0.75 = 12 tonne.
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