What do I fill a raised bed with?

[DawnSuiter]

Pretty self explanatory eh?

Say your filling a 10X10 vegetable bed that is 2' deep.

In the past I've used potting & garden soil but WOW that was pricey and the beds have lowered their levels and I don't want to buy more bagged soil.

Another I used straight top soil and amended the holes I planted in... that was cheap.. but I'm still trying to make that soil nice after 2 years...

I have top soil, mushroom compost, bagged soils, sand available to me... possibly other stuff if I knew what to look for.

I'd LIKE to buy a truck full of whatever it is and spread it around to all my raised food beds.

THANKS

 

[HEChicken]

I'm working this very same issue right now. Because my backyard tends to flood when it rains hard, I decided to do raised beds this year but now that I've made the frame, filling it is another matter. I want the vegie garden to be cost effective - not end up costing a fortune so that whatever I grow, it would have been cheaper to just buy it!

I started filling it last week, by laying down several layers of newspaper. This is to deter grass from growing up through it. I then put down a layer of horse manure. Yes, it is still a little hot but since its the bottom layer, I'm hoping by the time the roots get down to it, it will be just right. I then emptied my compost bin into it. This took the level about halfway up the sides. A neighbor had dug some holes and had a mound of dirt in his front yard. I asked if he needed it and he said I could take some, so I took enough to raise the level above the compost a few more inches. Unfortunately, at this point, the chooks discovered it and have now turned it over so that the compost is on top again. Darn. I was hoping to get it done and a fence around it before they found it. Oh well, I still have to fill it with another 6" or so of material.

Yesterday at a soccer game, I noticed a huge mound of dirt that has obviously been there awhile. Looks like it was excavated to put in something and they didn't have a need of the fill. I'm planning to return there tonight to fill my buckets. It will take several trips but I may yet be able to fill this raised bed without it costing the earth [no pun intended]. Good luck!

 

[lesa]

Our county has a great deal on compost. They have piles going that they make from yard waste. They will fill your pickup truck for 12 bucks... Or you can get a dump truck full for a couple hundred. It tends to be a little woody the first year, but it is black gold the second. See what might be available around you...

 

[DawnSuiter]

Sorry if this is totally dumb but...

compost IS soil? you can use 100% compost to plant in?

 

[HEChicken]

I don't think you can plant directly in compost, but if I'm wrong, I hope others will correct me. My understanding is that it is too rich and needs to be mixed proportionately with top soil. In that sense, I'm happy the chooks are mixing mine up for me.....

 

[vfem]

I put 100% compost in all my raised beds last year.

Best tomatoes EVER.

I bought ours at a landscape company that isn't far from here, its just a place that loads up your truck for ya, or you order one of their HUGE dump trucks. Its their only other option.

One pick up truck full is about a yard and its about $20.

 

[lesa]

Yes, compost is soil. I am not sure if that is scientific- but yeah, its dirt. You could certainly mix it with existing soil that you have in place..Depending on the quality of the compost, you might notice that it continues to break down over the season. For various reasons, I had no choice but to use "compost" a couple years ago. It worked out fine, and like I said, gets better with time. Do you have chicken manure at your disposal?

 

[vfem]

Joel Salatin would be so out of his mind over our terms of dirt! LOL

 

[patandchickens]

a) *Two feet*?? That seems rather excessive...! Remember that plants can and will grow into the underlying "real soil", which even if it is *lousy* soil will give them considerable benefits.

If nothing else, it is a significant engineering project just building retaining walls for a 10x10 2' raised garden

also

b) no, compost is NOT soil. It lacks some important elements of real soil -- no mineral component, generally no silty/clayey particles, and most often a rather skewed nutrient distribution. Also compost is usually very water-retentive and unless you are quite a careful waterer (and on well-drained soil, too) it is awful easy to rot out your plants if they are truly growing in ONLY compost.

While it is certainly possible, with good luck (in terms of what your compost is like) and good management, to grow plants in straight compost, it's not generally a smart thing to do on purpose... better to mix compost no more than half-and-half with real soil, even lousy real soil. 1-in-3 or 1-in-4 is generally even better, in terms of giving you better soil structure, better micronutrients, less problem with waterlogging, and a product that will LAST LONGER (compost tends to 'go away' rather fast as all that organic matter continues decomposing).

c) Dawn, I would suggest mixing a bunch of compost into your soil, perhaps a 4" layer (or more if you will till it in pretty deep and/or your soil is very sandy or very clayey). If you can mix several types of composts, or aged manures (aged at least 1 year), that would be ideal. If you need to buy topsoil then so be it but remember that most purchased topsoil is fairly crappy and often riddled with weed seeds, so I would suggest not doing it unless you *have to*.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[DawnSuiter]

Thanks everyone. I was surprised to learn a ton of mushroom compost only costs $42.

It'll be a great addition to our raised beds. Thank you Pat I will keep those guidelines in mind for mixing and also thanks for clearing up the confusion that compost ISN'T soil.

I have Appalachian red clay... the kind you can build bricks with... like most of us it seems really, as only a few are lucky to have something you could confuse with dirt. I have a variety of beds, started in different years all at different states of progress. I built our "square garden" because I didn't know you could plant in raised rows/hills in clay and plant that way. So I have both types of garden beds.

I also recently planted grapes, which due to the clay do not grow too well here... so I built a lasagna of sorts, mixing each different type of garden soil I already have in a tall barrel

The bottom is cut off, and the ground is dug all the way down to gravel layer, which is about 1 foot down.. but I still had to fill up a nearly 3' tall barrel and it took A LOT of dirt! (dh will be building a rock face/enclosure for the barrels to take the heat of the sun)

I'm rambling... sorry.
anyway.. THANKS!!!