TL;DR
A soil amendment is any material worked into soil to improve its physical or biological condition, such as compost, peat, aged manure, gypsum, or biochar, as distinct from fertilizer, which mainly supplies nutrients. Amendments loosen compacted clay, help sand hold water, feed microbial life, and shift structure over seasons rather than weeks.
What it means
A soil amendment is any material worked into soil to improve its physical or biological condition, such as compost, peat, aged manure, gypsum, or biochar, as distinct from fertilizer, which mainly supplies nutrients. Amendments loosen compacted clay, help sand hold water, feed microbial life, and shift structure over seasons rather than weeks. Landscapers typically till 2 to 4 inches of organic matter into new beds, guided by a soil test rather than habit.
Where it sits in the glossary
Soil amendment is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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