Real estate companies often scrape the top soil off of properties to sell to landscaping/gardening companies who then resell it at garden stores. It’s such a scam and should be illegal.

The pics in the top post are from where I live. The soil is just clay. The second pic is an area that had identical soil but had two cycles of mass composting. It’s in an area with a soil guard about 20ft away from first pic.

It’s best to do this in the fall after the leaves have already fallen since you can use them as compost as well. Just leave the leaves where they lay and follow the instructions.

Sign up for a chip drop delivery.
https://getchipdrop.com

Arborists produce a lot of refuse and often have to pay to dispose of their waste. Giving it to gardeners makes cheaper for them.

After the chip drop is delivered, go to grocery stores that press their own orange juice and fruit/shake shacks and ask if you can have their fruit peels.

Most of them are used to this request so you don’t need to feel weird about asking.

Spread peels evenly across the area you want to build more soil and then spread the chips over top.

The only purchase you may want to make is a soil guard/retainer. This is especially true of heavy clay soils where the rain just runs off and doesn’t sink.

If you are doing this in the fall/early winter, the soil will be ready for planting in the late spring.

Chip drop is an American network but if you live outside the US, you can call your local arborists and see if they may offer you the same opportunity.

The biological refuse from grocery stores and juice/shake venues is unlikely to be organic.

This method is if you have a large area of ground that needs better top soil and cannot afford to purchase it.

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/08/22/orange-new-green-how-orange-peels-revived-costa-rican-forest

@jblue in the uk there’s freewoodchips.co.uk where you can sign up as a tip site and arborists might call you when they are working in the area