Soil for raised bed (different question)

wyx2000

11 years ago

My question is I don't have any existing soil. So what should I use. I can have clean potting soil, which are not much expensive. But some say potting soil doesn't contain enough mineral, I need soil with sand, clay etc. But here I read in this post that potting soil maybe good

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/mels-mix/

Any idea?

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Comments (6)

Kimmsr
11 years ago
Whether a potting soil, or any purchased soil, is any good depends on many factors as well as just what you buy. Some potting mixes are peat moss, bark fines, perlite or vermiculte with some kind of nutrients added while other bags of soil might actually be the mineral part of soil with organic matter added.
If you are to be growing things in containers, pots, then you would want a potting mix. If you will be growing things in raised beds you would probably want soil of some kind, but that means knowing what it is you want since the trems "topsoil" and "garden soil" are meaningless terms that can be used to describe anything.
wyx2000
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the reply.
right, it is the top soil that confused me, one landscaping company close to me sell top soil, which is just compost plus sand, I doubt that will work for my raised bed.
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Hmm, I hadn't realized that this posted twice. Think I came back to my computer and on one open tab the little beach ball of macbook unhappiness was spinning so I hit refresh, and it must have resent the form. In any case, thanks to all for the input. I learn something new every day about the garden!
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Crystalshoe- Hydrology, not the size of the bed or container, determines whether you're growing in a raised bed (RB) or a container, and by extension, what type of soil you can/should use. A planting of daisies in a plastic or clay pot resting on your deck or patio is a container planting. Bury that pot an inch or two into the ground so there is continuity between the medium in the pot and the soil the pot is partially buried in, and it becomes a RB - no matter what size the pot is. The difference is, the earth will act as a giant wick, and remove water that would normally perch in a conventional container planting, but water movement within the partially buried container would closely mimic water movement in the earth or in the soil below. There is a caveat, however. The area where the pot is buried or partially buried would need to drain properly for things to work. If you were to bury the pot in clay soil that allowed essentially no percolation, the pot would simply fill up with water at every rainfall or irrigating. If you're building a RB over a clay soil that drains poorly - don't amend the clay unless you can drain the area. If you do, water will percolate or run into the area you amended, leaving it saturated for extended periods (the bathtub effect). You can remedy this problem if you are able to cut trenches or use a French drain cut into the clay to drain excess water to a lower area away from where you're growing. Not amending the clay below your beds also allows any excess water in the RB soil to move laterally over the surface of the clay where it can evaporate. If you amend, the water won't move laterally until the amended depression is entirely saturated with water. No matter how you look at it, you're eventually going to have problems with a RB over clay unless you can figure a way to use gravity or a pump to move water from the area. As soil life moves through the clay and increases the OM content of the clay below the RBs, that soil will become more porous than the surrounding clay. The pores will quickly fill with water when it rains or when you irrigate unless you have a plan to remove the water. The end game is, the water that collects below your RBs has to have a place to go. It has to drain naturally in a reasonable time, or be directed downhill or to a sump where it can be mechanically removed. Amending the soil beneath RBs just forces you to face the brunt of the problem sooner (in heavy clay soils). BTW - you don't need to use a highly aerated soil like that you referred to in your OP in RBs. In fact, the highly aerated soils that perform so well in containers are probably not a particularly good choice for RBs because they have a steep water retention curve that will have you watering more than you'd prefer. Keep in mind that the time you spend now, properly preparing, will save a lot of time and frustration later. How many beds? Size/depth? Budget constraints high, low, medium? Ready access to materials you think might work? Al
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Yes bone meal is high in P and also a good source of Ca. But it is also very slow to decompose and affect the soil or become available to the plants. So you might see some results from it the following year. Plus it has effect on the soil pH and as is well established, plays no role in the prevention of BER. Since very few soils can be found in the US that are low in P or Ca deficient adding it for those purposes is a waste of money and effort. Yet the claims persist, primarily due to posts just like this add-on to a thread from 3 years ago. Dave
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Most folks don't have piles of excess garden soil sitting around waiting to fill a raised bed so bringing in/importing soil is extremely common. There is nothing wrong with a screened topsoil provided it has been screened adequately enough to remove larger rocks (large than 1" diameter), big roots or chunks of wood and any other sort of debris - plastic, pieces of metal, etc. And I'd go with the leaf compost at a 25-75% ratio to start. That's higher than OM levels are suggested for inground soil but it will help to both improve drainage and retain moisture in the raised beds. Sounds contradictory but the two conditions really are compatible and that combination very desirable. It'll hit the suggested level soon enough with continued decomposition. Lightly tilling the first few inches of the underlying existing soil is always a good idea but only if already bare of any lawn grasses and free of most of the weeds. If not, layer sheets of overlapping cardboard down first to smother and kill off whatever is growing there. By the end of the season the cardboard will have decomposed and plant roots will have started to disturb and penetrate the ground soil. Pay attention to your plant needs during the season as you may need to supplement with a fertilizer. A compost comprised only of leaves will not have the range of nutrients as a mixed ingredient compost would and neither can be relied on as a complete and adequate nutrient source.
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webbee
11 years ago
You could use what the Square Foot Gardening folks use, which is called Mel's Mix, after the author of All New Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholemew's method of soil less gardening.

You should do a search on Mel's mix or read the book.

However in a nut shell;
1/3 coarse vermiculite
1/3 peat or palm coir (better imho)
1/3 organic compost made of at least 5 sources of compost. Make sure that your compost is that and not filled with peat filler as you have to adjust the peat component if it is in the compost.

Other tweekages could be made but that is the recipe as originally given.

Check MM in the Square Foot Section of this forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Square Foot Section
jolj
11 years ago
Mel's great.
I have sandy loam soil & I use coffee waste compost, grass clipping compost, leave mold composted & kitchen waste.
A little animal manure a few times.
I have not problems, well it is hard to pick the 6 feet tomatoes plants, but I have a ladder.
oliveoyl3
11 years ago
I like Mel's mix, but even better for my rainy climate was mixing in with my existing clay soil to provide a bit of stability & moisture holding. Daily watering wasn't my style and soil was just a bit too loose for trellises not attached to wood boxes. We've been growing in our current boxes for 3 years and permanent beds without wooden sides for more than that.

If you don't have boxes you probably won't want Mel's mix which is basically a container soil.

Lasagna gardens might work better for you, too. Layering up is amazingly easy. Garden sides aren't necessary. Some climates do well with sunken gardens instead of raised. Used coffee grounds are free as is hay sweepings from the feed store. Inquire about bagging up what they sweep up after it spills when loading customer orders. I wear a mask, gloves, coveralls, & clean up after myself. Whatever the mix of hay & shavings is present always blends well as bottom layers of lasagna gardens we've built. Those gardens are loose & rich soils as compared to the "dirt" gardens.

Amend as jolj suggested & your soil will be productive.
Kimmsr
11 years ago
You can build a Lasagna bed and not concern yourself about something called "topsoil". You could spend a ton of money and mix together something called Mels Mix. Or you coud simply add a lot of organic matter, for many of us this is free, to the soil you do have and make it better, somethign the other two processes will eventually do anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening 101

Soil for raised bed (different question)

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wyx2000
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Soil for raised bed (different question)

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Kimmsr

wyx2000Original Author

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wyx2000
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