Gardening: How do you fill raised beds?

AshleyC

AshleyC

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Ok noob question but I'm not a gardener!

I want to put 3 or 4 raised beds in the garden for the Mrs to grow some veggies. Just thinking about how much soil I would need to fill them up. Buying those bags of soil at the garden centre would cost a fortune as id need loads of them. So , for anyone who has done similar, where did you get the soil from to fill yours up?
 
Around here the local aggregates merchant sells topsoil by the tonne.
 
Bulk bag delivered. There are many companies, this one seems to be ready to use. Be aware that not all topsoil is the same!

www.compostdirect.com

Veggie Pro

A professional grade loam topsoil with added organic compost. The perfect choice for the discerning gardener building vegetable patches and raised beds.
www.compostdirect.com www.compostdirect.com
 
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Standard sized raised bed takes a bulk bag. The stuff linked above is good but like everything prices are rising.

You've got a wheelbarrow right? Breaking the bag down and filling the bed is not a job for a hot day
 
When I did them around 15 years ago, I factored in a depth of around 1 foot. I made a frame from treated scaffold boards, using glued and screwed housing joints, finished with mahogany woodstain. Put black membrane on the bottom, then used a mixture of sieved soil, pea shingle (for drainage) and two different types of compost, multi purpose in four of the beds and ericaceois for the Azalea/Pieris beds.
 
Have a look at 'Gardeners World Vegetable Book' by(the late) Geoff Hamilton. It is an excellent small guide by one of the best TV gardeners.

Dave
 
Dont just use top soil, it doesnt have enough humus (organic matter) in it. A bed of pure topsoil wont hold moisture well when its dry and wont drain properly when saturated. Think of it like tipping sand into a bucket of water it will all settle at the bottom pretty quickly. You want it more open

Depending on depth of the raise I would include atleast 2 bags of organic matter per square meter- either whats generally called soil improver - composted green waste or 1 bag of soil improver and 1 bag of Manure.
This will give you moisture holding in the summer and an open structure for the winter that will allow water to move through it.
 
^^^ That. Also, if you have the ability to collect, you can often get topsoil from local freecycle or facebook groups, there are often people digging holes and looking to get rid of the same. I've done that for specific purposes, but frankly if I wanted to grow vegetables, I'd actually be basing the content on something like the cheap B&Q stuff and adding other material dependent on what I wanted to grow.
 
You definately want topsoil a raised bed of multipurpose even peat free will not have any sort of structure. We dont grow crops in feilds of multipurpose compost and grops grown underglass if direct planted are in a soil base with improvements. Id be careful of taking "topsoil" that is not screened and ideally sterilised. If I take 4 inchs of soil off my unmanaged areas of garden its pure clay which would be useless. If its not sterilised you can introduce a whole load of weeds you dont want. Mares tails, Cooch grass, bind weed and ground elder are just a few you would not want to introduce.
 
AgentOrange76 said:
You definately want topsoil a raised bed of multipurpose even peat free will not have any sort of structure. We dont grow crops in feilds of multipurpose compost and grops grown underglass if direct planted are in a soil base with improvements. Id be careful of taking "topsoil" that is not screened and ideally sterilised. If I take 4 inchs of soil off my unmanaged areas of garden its pure clay which would be useless. If its not sterilised you can introduce a whole load of weeds you dont want. Mares tails, Cooch grass, bind weed and ground elder are just a few you would not want to introduce.
Click to expand...
Agree about the ground elder......its difficult to get rid of.......
 
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