Ecological/Permaculture Landscape Constructor
 
Are you passionate about permaculture or building regenerated landscapes?
Do you have experience in landscape construction?
 
EcoEnrich Landscape Design (a Bendigo-based small business) is looking for passionate and qualified landscape constructors to help realise their clients garden dreams.
 
EcoEnrich designs niche gardens in Central Victoria for clients who are interested in reviving their garden ecosystem so that soil, plants, animals and humans can thrive.
 
Your business will provide specialised input into the design process for EcoEnrich where required (such as working out the placement and design of retaining walls); will use EcoEnrich design plans to guide construction; will provide landscape construction quotes direct to the client; and will be paid directly by the client for any agreed landscaping services provided.
 
Required:
Current ABN
Current insurance policy
Provide all your own tools
 
Please contact Elissa at [email protected] for further details.

So you’re wanting to install a lawn or get your new garden up and running real fast? Why not buy in soil from your local dealer or, if you’re on a budget, some infill advertised in the local paper?
 
PLEASE read the following first!
 
Let’s start with Infill. Infill is just soil scraped off someone’s land (usually if they’ve built a house or dam etc.).
 
Pros:

• Cheap or free

Cons:

• Could be contaminated (heavy metals, asbestos etc.)
• The soil structure will likely be massively damaged from digging it out so you end up with compacted, dead soil
• Likely filled with weed seeds that you will then be introducing to your garden

 
So buying soil from a landscaping dealer is better then?
 
Pros:

• Will usually be tested for heavy metals and be free of weed seeds (check this though!)
• Usually has manures and minerals mixed in (if it’s premium grade)
• Has a large percentage of sand so it is free draining (good for turf)

 
Cons:

• Expensive compared to infill or repairing your current soil
• Is essentially dead soil (see my article on Is your soil dead?) devoid of all the biota essential for supporting plant life except maybe some bacteria in the manure
• Has no structure/stability to retain water and minerals and make them available to plants
• Gives your plants an initial boost of growth (from the manure/minerals) but then your plants will look worse and worse year after year as these wash out of the soil and there are very limited soil biota and humus to retain and recycle and continue to look after your plants.
• Your plants essentially will grow shallow roots into the bought soil (as the native soil is likely not appealing) making them highly susceptible to pests, diseases, drought and waterlogging (if the native soil is heavy clay).

 
So in conclusion, I always recommend reviving your current soil ecosystem FIRST. This does take a bit more time and energy but the results are seen as your soil just gets better and better over time. Even if you decide to bring in bought soil after you’ve somewhat repaired your native soil (e.g. for better drainage for turf), you will be rewarded as your turf will then be happy to grow their roots deep into the native soil below and you’ll get a healthier lawn.
 
There are exceptions of course, for example, when we wanted to grow root and leaf veggies and found out our soil was highly contaminated by arsenic, we initially covered the soil with builders plastic and filled raised veggie beds with horse manure and straw. We later topped them up with bought premium soil. But we continue to be mindful of and feed the soil biota so that this soil stays alive!

Ok so your soil might not look this bad!
​
But it’s important to understand that healthy soil is not just a bunch of inert dirt with maybe a few minerals and manures mixed in.
 
Healthy soil is ALIVE!
 
Healthy soil is a living ecosystem filled with billions of visible and invisible (at least to the naked eye) biota.
 
The visible ones are things like worms, spiders, beetles, millipedes, slaters etc. You may also see threads of white which are the network of mycelium that funghi use to communicate with plants and transport nutrients and protective messages around for them.    
 
The invisible ones are what we call micro-organisms such as bacteria, archaea, viruses, funghi, protists, nematodes, micro-arthropods and micro-animals.
 
These all work together to break down organic matter (manure, leaves etc.) and recycle minerals and make them available to plants. Together and with the help of plants they create the beautiful spongy rich chocolate like soil that gardeners dream of!
 
So, is your soil dead?

If it doesn't have a diverse population of macro and micro organisms it will struggle to support the plants you want to grow to make your garden beautiful!
 
Check out my blog on Buying soil (Pros and Cons: what you need to know!)