Dyersburg sits at just 312 feet above sea level on the flat loess and bottomland shelf that the Forked Deer River carved through Dyer County, and that geography shapes almost every yard here. The native silt loam holds moisture beautifully but compacts into a slick crust after the 50 inches of rain that falls each year, so bark mulch and coarse topsoil blends do far more good than sand or peat. Homes closer to the river bottoms near Lenox Road often need gravel and drainage stone before they need anything decorative, while the higher ground toward Halls and Ripley drains fast enough for standard hardwood mulch beds. Growers over in Caruthersville face the same Mississippi Valley silt, just with a little more flood memory. Living up to the Gateway to Everywhere name, Dyersburg yards run the gamut from tidy in town lots to acreage that swallows material by the truckload.