Garden Soil in Maryland: Which Blend Belongs in the Bed

Three materials in this catalogue look similar on a driveway and behave nothing alike in a bed, and choosing between them is the decision most people are here to make. Garden soil goes where plants have to grow. Screened topsoil goes where grass has to grow or a grade has to be capped. Fill dirt goes where volume is needed and nothing is expected to root. Order the wrong one for a raised bed and you find out in July, when the tomatoes stall and the soil in the frame has settled four inches below the rail.

What the ticket says about this blend, and what it does not

Those weights are worth sitting with, because they tell you what each material is. Screened Top Soil runs about 2,200 lb per cubic yard and Fill Dirt about 2,400 lb dry, up to 3,000 lb wet. Garden soil is lighter than both because a share of its volume is organic matter rather than mineral soil. That lightness is what roots like and what makes the blend drop in a frame over the first season.

Matching the blend to the bed: four planting jobs side by side

Piedmont clay, Eastern Shore sand and the Critical Area line

The native ground under a Maryland bed changes what the blend is doing for you.

• Central Piedmont: loam and clay loam weathered from schist and gneiss, often carrying rock fragments and flakes of mica. It holds nutrients well and drains badly. Organic matter here is buying structure and air, not fertility, and the bed wants to sit proud of the surrounding grade so winter rain has somewhere to go.
• Eastern Shore and the lower Western Shore: sandy loam and silt over unconsolidated Coastal Plain sediment. Water runs straight through on high ground and sits on flat ground. Compost is doing the opposite job here, holding moisture through a dry August rather than opening the soil up.
• Hagerstown and Frederick valleys: silt loam and clay over limestone with rock ledges near the surface. Beds are often shallower than people expect, which is an argument for building up rather than digging down.
• Within 1,000 feet of tidal water, Critical Area rules limit lot coverage, and gravel and stone surfaces count toward it. Planting beds are not the issue, but the paths and edging around them can be.

Season matters less for soil than for base work. Beds can be filled from the first workable spring days through autumn, though a bed filled in late autumn will settle over winter and want topping before planting.

Filling three raised beds behind a Bowie split-level

A worked example rather than a real garden. Three frames, each 4 feet by 8 feet, filled to 11 inches.

• Each bed: 4 x 8 = 32 square feet. 11 inches is 0.9167 feet, so 32 x 0.9167 = 29.3 cubic feet.
• Three beds: 29.3 x 3 = 88 cubic feet.
• 88 divided by 27 = 3.26 cubic yards, call it 3.3, which at about 1.00 ton per cubic yard is roughly 3.3 tons.

Order a little over rather than a little under. The blend settles as the compost in it breaks down, and a frame that measured level in April will read an inch or two low by the following spring. The soil calculator carries the same arithmetic if your beds are a different size or depth.

Patio base, dry creek and fire pit: three loads that are not soil

Three more worked examples, included because they land on soil pages by mistake more often than anything else.

• Paver patio base, 12 feet by 14 feet at 6 inches: 168 square feet x 0.5 = 84 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 3.11 cubic yards. Ordered as CR-6 at about 1.50 tons per cubic yard, that is roughly 4.7 tons. Soil under pavers is a settled patio waiting to happen.
• Dry creek bed, 26 feet long averaging 3.5 feet wide at 4 inches: 91 square feet x 0.3333 = 30.3 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 1.12 cubic yards. As River Rock at about 1.35 tons per cubic yard, about 1.5 tons.
• Fire pit surround, a 9 foot outer circle around a 3.5 foot pit: 9 x 9 x 0.7854 = 63.6 square feet, less 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.7854 = 9.6, leaves 54 square feet. At 3 inches, 54 x 0.25 = 13.5 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 0.5 cubic yards. As Screenings at about 1.45 tons per cubic yard, roughly 0.7 tons.

Getting soil off the driveway and into the beds the same day

Delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP code, and the truck needs clear access to somewhere it can tip and back out of. Soil is the one material worth planning the drop for carefully, because a pile left on a lawn through a wet week kills what is under it and a pile on a driveway wants moving before rain turns it into a job.

Put a tarp down first. Have wheelbarrows, a flat shovel and a second pair of hands ready, and fill the furthest bed first while everyone still has enthusiasm. Work out the yardage from your frame measurements, check it in the calculator, then choose an amount and a delivery date on this page. For a mixed order where beds want the blend and a low area wants bulk underneath it, send the dimensions through contact and have the split worked out before you order.