The older neighborhoods in my hometown of Austin Texas are seeing quite a bit of redevelopment and infill these days as the area grows like a weed. As would be expected, the developers are here building/remodeling and selling. Speculative homes apparently need a manicured yard before they are put on the market – presumably because a nice yard adds to the bottom line even though landscaping is expensive. Before the yard is literally unrolled and the plants are planted, I’ve noticed that developers begin by spreading out a layer of sticky red dirt.
I’ve not seen this type of dirt used in any other application and for good reason. Referred to jokingly around these parts as “red death,” the dirt is a type of sandy loam taken from deep within the sand and gravel pits near the Colorado River. Red death is essentially a waste product from the pit or, in other words, the cheapest dirt you can get.
To be fair, red death is completely non-toxic, but it has no organic material and little biological activity: things plants need to grow. Developers use it for a variety of reasons. A common reason is that construction makes the surrounding lot uneven and chunky with rocks and debris. Red death covers all that up.
So there you have it. The Earth’s own pancake make-up.
Yards can grow despite the use of red death by tapping into the nutrients below. However, sometimes a heavy topcoat of fertilizer is needed. These topcoats can pollute nearby streams and contaminate water supplies.
In the end, red death is a corner cut that can create environmental degradation. Wouldn’t it be almost as easy to just smooth out the existing topsoil and add organic compost to it?
