Healthy topsoil is essential for good garden growth, but getting your yard's topsoil into shape can be time-consuming and confusing. However, leaving your yard bare while you wait for landscapers to design and install your garden can leave you with a rather uninspiring view. It's understandable that you might want to get a head start on some of the simpler plants and tasks. However, you may want to wait for the landscaper to show up because adding topsoil involves more than just spreading some on top of the ground -- and what you use may depend on what you want to be planted.

Generic Terms and Unknown Contents

Topsoil that you buy from a supplier can be literally any kind of dirt, not necessarily the rick, black nutritious dirt that most people think of when they hear the term. Going out to buy your own topsoil can be tricky because you really don't know what's in the bag until you open it. Even if you can see a sample of the soil first, its origin could be unsavory. For example, a lot of topsoils are taken from agricultural land, and it may have pesticide and herbicide residues in it.

However, a professional landscaper will have a known source for getting good topsoil that lets plants thrive in your region. (He or she can also amend your garden soil to turn that into the nutritious planting base that you'll need, though that method would take a longer time.) The landscaper will also know more about the nutritional needs of the plants going in your garden, and he or she can get topsoil that is as ready for those plants as possible.

Physical Effort

This should be an obvious consideration, but many people don't realize what they've gotten into until they actually start lifting those bags of soil. There is a lot of physical effort involved in getting that soil home and to the yard, and then spreading it all over the yard after removing weeds. The landscaper will have a crew who can make short work of this, and they will likely do a more complete job of getting rid of weeds than you might have.

Extra Cost

Chances are the cost of the topsoil is included in your whole garden plan from the landscaper. If you buy your own, you likely won't save much money and may end up spending more.

It is better to let the landscaper come in first, and if you really want to have plants now, start with some containers that can be moved around. It can take time to get a yard and garden into shape, but patience pays off in the end.