Proper water maintenance is an important aspect of successful gardening, and a proper balance is important to all plants. In a climate like ours where rain can come all at once or none at all, maintaining the balance is all the more difficult. A proper soil mix from the beginning will go a long way towards ensuring a successful garden and Turface MVP is an important aspect of that. Overall Benefits Turface MVP is calcined clay. It is a high fire ceramic with a large amount of pore space. What this means is that Turface MVP sits within the soil and helps control the amount of moisture in the soil. It stops compaction better than perlite and absorbed water better than vermiculite, all while being less expensive and easier to work with. Turface MVP can hold its weight in water and is harder than everything around it so it keeps the soil mix loose. Turface MVP creates a noticeable difference from the beginning, as well as long-term control. Over a 20 year period, Turface MVP will only break down by 3 1/2%. From season to season, much more Turface MVP will remain compared to the soil, compost, or mulch. Turface MVP also contains a diverse mixture of coarse to fine particles to help fill out the soil. [Click and drag to move] Compared to Expanded Shale Expanded Shale is the next closest product to Turface MVP, but differs in a number of important ways. Volume, degradation, water control, and workability are all factors that are better with Turface MVP than Expanded Shale. -Product Stability While Expanded Shale can melt and break down quickly, Turface MVP maintains its integrity even when saturated, and holds together for decades. -Volume: With the same weight, the volume of Expanded shale is much smaller than that of Turface MVP. To incorporate into a garden bed, it would take up to twice as expanded shale as Turface MVP to achieve the same mix volume. -Water Absorption: The most important difference between the two is the ability to absorb water. Turface MVP has 74% internal pore space, while Expanded Shale only has 34%. This means that Turface MVP will hold more than twice as much water as expanded shale, giving much better performance. An Effective and Simple Soil Mix When starting from scratch, a simple mix can create wonderful results with the right materials. A mixture of about 25% Turface MVP will greatly improve any soil blend. (rates are by volume) The Mix Example 2 parts Rose Soil 3 bags Rose Soil 2 parts Composted Cattle Manure 3 bags Composted Cattle Manure 1 part Turface MVP 1 bags Turface MVP Any number of additives could be mixed in as well to get the desired mix, but these main three ingredients form the backbone of a superior soil mix for any garden. If there is an existing bed already mixed, Turface MVP could still be added at a rate of up to 1 bag per 50 sq ft to 100 sq ft mixed into the top 4-6 inches of the soil.