The Nightmare on New Homeowner's St or Soils ain't Soils (Ch4)

Welcome to the exciting conclusion to The Nightmare on New Homeowner's St

Chapter 4

Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner have had a shocking experience and have thus far failed to realise that it was all their making. Their dream garden is now a catastrophe and they have spent a lot of money with no results. But few months later Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner watch a gardening show on TV which inspires them to ring and chat to the Landscape Designer.

The Landscape Designer conducts a through assessment of their site's soil and the garden-works and finds;

• Most of the soil is so badly compacted from the construction site-works it has completely lost its structure which in-turn has destroyed the soil's porosity. Porosity is the ability of a soil to transport and retain water, air, and nutrients. Moreover, that really nice dark looking garden-mix contained 80% black sand and 20% fine bark chips. Consequently their soil has become hydrophobic so any watering they did was just running off the surface of the soil and down the stormwater drain.
• The massive amounts of building debris that has been buried deep on site is messing with the soil pH. No amount of pH amendment can fix the consequences of buried debris and it will continue to affect the pH as long as the debris remains buried. As such, their garden will never thrive until the debris is removed.

The combined effects of these issues was the main reason why all the plants were diseased or dying and the only way to fix this their garden properly was to begin from scratch.

Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner finally learn that this whole experience has been an expensive and unnecessary lesson that could have been completely avoided. Now they are quite determined that whatever it takes they are going to do it right this time around.

Following this professional advice and analysis Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner enlist the Landscape Designer to manage the landscape site-works and lament if only they had contacted me in the first place!

One month later, the building rubble and conrete spoil has been dug out and removed. Appropriate soil has been purchased and worked into the existing soil, the ensuing landscape works has repaired all the damage, plants have been planted, mulched and the works are now complete.

Two years later Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner are still enjoying their beautiful garden paradise and have developed a great appreciation for the years of dedicated research and sound knowledge that soil-scientists and horticultural specialists accrue throughout their professional careers.

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As of June 2009 it has now been 7 years since Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner's garden was repaired. Their garden is still thriving thanks to the efforts and knowledge their Landscape Designer. And Mr & Mrs Newhomeowner now understand why Soils ain't Soils.