Buy topsoils, composts and organic manures and soils online here.

This guarantees that the soil you receive has been tested to the relevant British Standards guidelines and is 100% safe, it also means that the soil hasn't been reclaimed from skip waste!


Lawnmix® Topsoil – a screened to 5mm topsoil perfect for turfing or seeding jobs. Give your new lawn the best start possible by using this quality soil mix.

Bordermix® Topsoil – a mix of Lawnmix Topsoil and well rotted, organic horse and chicken manures – ideal for mixing into poor, malnourished soils or for filling new borders and beds. Your plants and vegetables will thank you for this one!

Topdressing – a mix of Lawnmix Topsoil and fine, screened to 3mm Asphalt sand – perfect for spreading thinly over patchy areas of grass that need a bit of seed attention and for using in areas prone to water logging.

Lawnmix® Plus – a recent addition to the Dandy soil family – mixed specifically for seeding. The special blend of topsoil and black soil improver actively promotes seed growth resulting in an established lawn after just a couple of weeks.

Organic range – we now supply a range of organic growing materials. Including topsoils, composts and manures all in the name of getting Britain greener and eco friendlier. Our organic soils, composts and manures all contain an extremely high level of organic matter and are packed full of plenty of essential nutrients to get your plants and veggies off to a flying start with none of that GM nastiness.
If you are after organic material but are not sure what to look for then just ensure that your supplier does not reclaim soils from skip waste and then all of their soils are obtained only from green field sites and are preferably left fallow for a good few years. The definition of organic soils and composts is any soil or compost that has a high organic content – although you obviously don’t want anything full of chemicals. All of our soils and composts are low in PTE’s and are obtained only from virgin, green field sites.

Sterilised Topsoil – this soil is a great choice if you are really concerned about the weed content of your soil. It has been heated to the relevant temperatures required to kill off all of the weeds and shoots but to a level where most of the good stuff you should expect to find in your soil is still retained.

Composts and manures – our organic manure is a rich mix of horse and chicken manures – great for improving the quality of soil in your borders, beds and allotments. Organic compost is made up of well rotted green waste – this is left to rot down for at least a couple of years – it is also spot checked periodically by the soil association.

What is quality topsoil?

Topsoil. It's arguably the most precious stuff on earth, sustaining all land-dwelling animals, including
humans. It takes nature 500 years to make an inch of it! Quality soils should meet guidelines set out by British Standards 3882. This BS states that Naturally occurring topsoil is the dynamic product of chemical, physical, and biological processes. It is the result of interaction between the inherent nature of the parent material and the prevailing environment (including human activity and vegetation).” It goes on to state that “The properties of topsoil may thus change if one or more of these factors changes.

For example; if topsoil was stripped and transported to a new location, spread in a different topographic or drainage situation and planted with different vegetation, the topsoil that develops would become very different to the one that was lifted.” The quality grades of soil are generally defined as premium, standard and economy.

These parameters are based on the physical structure, organic matter content, pH and potential contaminants. The British Standard for topsoil states that “Premium grade is natural topsoil. It is of high intrinsic fertility, loamy texture and of good structure. It has the capacity and in the right site and climate to be used in plant nurseries, gardens, horticulture, amenity and landscaping sites where it is intended to grow the most demanding plants or where the topsoil may be subject to intensive or frequent cultivation, e.g. annual bedding.

This high quality may be unnecessary for the majority of topsoil applications where other grades may be entirely satisfactory.” It goes on to add that “premium grade is the most limited in supply and that, if handled or badly stored, premium grade topsoil can change into one of the other grades. Therefore, suppliers responsible for processing and providing topsoil must be proficient in the soil’s handling and storage.”

Turfcare professionals need to have high confidence in the materials they are working with. High quality topsoil is one of the main ingredients in rootzone and topdressing. One organisation currently working towards setting the quality standards in the topdressing & rootzone manufacturing industry, is BRTMA - the British Rootzone and Topdressing Manufacturers Association.

Ideally, the minimum standard for the rootzone and top-dressing manufacturing industry would be that the end product would always be produced using the best components available. These should conform to an agreed specification for quality control purposes. In the past this has not always been the case. One reason being the use of inferior materials to economise on manufacturing costs.

This frequently applies to the soil blended into these products. Soil of doubtful provenance can often be derived from root vegetable washing, as a by-product of the food production industry.

Companies that hire skips can often sell topsoil as a sideline; the contents of the filled skips are passed through a screener, the result being sold as ‘topsoil’. Silt from river dredging has also been discovered as being sold as topsoil. All of these products are usually high in silt and clay.

In the case of vegetable washings there is often a high salt content.

Soil that has been lifted from brown field/ex-industrial sites is being offered as premium grade topsoil. The lead photograph of this article is an actual case of this. One of the functions of organisations such as the British Topsoil Suppliers Association (BTSA) or BRTMA is to prevent this material finding its way into the market place.

Poor quality topsoil substitutes can possess high levels of salts as measured by the soil’s Electrical Conductivity, the units being mS cm-1. Genuine topsoil will usually give a reading in the range of 250 - 800 mS cm-1. Vegetable washings sold as topsoil have been measured in excess of 2700 mS cm-1. Partly this is because lime is used in the cultivation process.

What are the effects of high salt concentration on plant health? One of the main effects is that high salinity interferes with Ion exchange by raising the osmotic potential. This has the effect of hindering the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients in the form of dissolved mineral ions via the root system. In the case of turf this will produce weaker turf grass with a greater susceptibility to disease.

A specification sheet provided by the supplier should show the Particle Size Distribution (PSD), the pH, the percentage content of organic matter and the electrical conductivity. Nutrient levels such as Magnesium (Mg), Potassium (K) Phosphorous (P) and Nitrogen (N) should also be shown on the specification sheet. The PSD will give an indication of the silt and clay content.

The effects of high concentrations of the finest particles in a soil will affect the drainage and gas permeability of the growing medium. Heavy clay soils will be slippery when wet and will be slow draining. When these soils dry out in hot summer conditions, which are becoming more prevalent with global climate change, they set rock hard, which is both unsuitable for most sports playing surfaces (with the obvious exceptions of cricket wickets and tennis courts) and does not promote healthy turf. Slow draining heavy soils do not allow air to reach the soil organisms that break down organic matter to become available nutrients for plant uptake.

Organic matter acts as the cementing agent that causes fine particles to bind together into aggregates. Therefore, in physical terms, the OM content is significant because it is difficult to maintain good soil structure in soils low or devoid of organic matter.

Correctly ascertaining a soil’s pH is a necessary requirement due to the fact that, at higher pH levels, certain nutrients react with other compounds present in the soil and become unavailable for uptake by plants. Adjustment of the soil pH will result in the release of these nutrients back into soil solution.

This adjustment is not necessary if the soil used has a sufficiently low pH value. It is also the case that fine turf cultivars such as those found on golf greens require slightly acidic conditions. This is, in part, because of the wild grass species that the turf cultivars are derived from, were evolved to grow in upland, acidic conditions; it is also the case that the level of microbial activity in the soil is also pH dependent.

So be aware, ask questions of your supplier. It is simply not enough to rely on the paperwork, it is a good idea to visit your intended supplier’s works, inspect the production facility, find out if their other customers are happy with the supplied product, and where the soil comes from originally? Inspect it yourself - are there roots present? Does it contain Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), Mares-tail (Equisetum arvense) or worse still - Japanese knotweed (Polygonium japonicum)? At the very least, request that a sample be sent to you. If a recent specification sheet is unavailable, then you should ask why. Find out what soil associations the supplier belongs to.

Substandard and unsuitable material is being sold to the unwary as premium grade topsoil - make sure your job doesn’t receive it. The origin of doubtful quality soil is obviously unreported by unscrupulous suppliers, therefore these checks are essential.

The standard that the laboratory contaminant results are compared against is DEFRA’s Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment Soil Guideline Values intervention levels (CLEA SGV’s). If the concentration of a contaminant rises above the prescribed value, then that substance is deemed to be present at unacceptably high concentration for the soil’s intended purpose. The SGV will vary according to the use that the soil will be put to.

These categories are - Residential, Allotments and commercial/industrial - the sports turf industry falling into the last category.

Because of the increasing supply of questionable material described as ‘topsoil’ the British Topsoil Suppliers Association was set up. The non-profit organisation ensures that its members only supply true, genuine topsoil.
It will not have been obtained from a dubious source, thus the product supplied is able to be classified as ‘true topsoil’.
The members achieve this by regular quality control monitoring and being aware of the soil’s original source.
It is also worth mentioning that having a current specification sheet increases confidence of both the intermediary and the final user, for the material supplied.

Look out for the BTSA APPROVED LOGO when you buy!

Having this information available to the end user, in the form of a current full specification sheet, is becoming significant as more soil of unspecified provenance appears on the market.

For copies of SGV’s and other technical material referred to here see: - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/landquality/776051/775200/775473/?version=1〈=_e

Nigel Fahey B.Sc. is the laboratory manager for Baileys of Norfolk, a founder member of the BTSA & BRTMA.

Please keep in mind that the best way to ensure that the soil you purchase is suited to your specific requirements is to ask questions of the supplier and to inspect the stock yourself – you should also take samples and have laboratory tests performed yourself to ensure that it meets exactly your needs.