When blending soils, you must find a natural balance that suits the planting scheme and does not result in a material that has zero water retention and ends up drying out. To make a naturally heavy, sandy soil more lightweight, we experimented with various materials that have the desired effect without compromising the availability of nutrients or the integrity of the soil’s drainage capability.
TOPSOIL DEPTH PLANTING XSECTION SEATTLE FULL
Space is at a premium, so designers are looking for innovative ways to reproduce full planting schemes, with limited space and weight demands. We have seen projects, such as Thomas Heatherwick’s 1,000 Trees scheme in Shanghai, which look to make the most of urban space with an abundance of living roofs and walls. Podium soils, where load bearing and drainage are primary concerns, are becoming popular among those designing urban schemes that need to comply with SuDS requirements, as well as satisfy demands for more green spaces in densely populated areas. The trend has changed over recent years and we now see a greater need for greening large house builds, specifically in cities it’s now taken into account at the design stage, allowing for better living environments and better designed drainage systems to ensure longevity. They are usually car park roofs and haven’t been designed to take volumes of materials, or don’t have set drainage systems installed ready for the landscapers to finish the work. Podiums differ from roof gardens, as they don’t often have the depth of materials available due to the way they are engineered. However, we didn’t see our first official specification for a podium planting medium, until 2012. The usual field bulk density of our topsoils at field capacity is around 1,300kg per m³ and this had to be reduced to a working density somewhere below 1,000kg per m³. We were challenged to come up with a lightweight solution to help reduce the load burdening, while maintaining the topsoil’s structural and nutritional integrity. (This article first appeared in the ProLandscaper Podium Landscapes supplement, published 21 February 2018.)īourne Amenity was first enlisted to blend a soil for podium planting back in 2007. Next post The Perfect Soil for Podium Landscapes
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