Need help in starting a raised bed veggie garden - Soil Mixture ?

15 years ago

Hello,

I am a complete newbie when it comes to gardening. I tried to search, but I was overwhelmed and not sure what to read for my simple question.

I have tons of packets of veggie seeds that I would like to plant this year, and I would like to do it in a raised bed so that I don't have to worry with trying to till the clay in my yard. I was wondering what the best, but most affordable, soil mixture would be for this. I bought a bunch of topsoil today, but then I read on the raised bed instructions that a mix might be better, but I can't seem to find anywhere that will tell me what to mix!

I just need to figure out a cheap and easy way to do this...if, in fact, there is one!

Thank you!

Rebekah

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Comments (10)

trsinc
15 years ago
You're probably thinking of Mel's Mix. That's Mel Bartholomew - he wrote the book Square Foot Gardening.

For me, the cheapest way has been to buy 12 cubic yards of the best soil I could afford (that was 400.00 worth, yikes) and to that I added compost and cow manure. Some places sell really good soil with lots of compost and manure included. It has worked great, my vegetables have been productive, it hasn't packed down (I can still dig a hole with my hand or trowel).

Some day I'd like to add perlite or expanded shale for water retention, but I haven't yet.

There are lots of opinions out there about this.

What kind of top soil did you buy? Did it come in a bag?
scgirl816
Original Author
15 years ago
I just bought cheap topsoil in a bag. I don't have a lot of money to spend on this. I'm not an avid gardener...just wanted to try my hand at it this year since I was given some seeds, but I don't want to dump hundreds of dollars into it. Especially when I may kill everything anyway! LOL See, I know you experts will laugh at me, but when I went to the store to buy dirt, I was going to get the organic Miracle Gro, but I put it back because it was $5 a bag, and I was going to need 18 or so bags, and that was even way more than I want to spend. I thought maybe I could just get the regular topsoil and then buy a box of the some organic plant food and add that in for a lot less than buying the $5 bags. But then I tried to find something online that would help me know if I should add peat moss (I have a bag in my garage), and that's where I got confused. :)

Thanks!
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Oh wow... thanks everyone for all the generous feedbacks and input. I think I came to the right place. I am taking this project slow and plan to spend this Spring gathering knowledge and info ... and you guys are helping a lot. I'll probably start "breaking ground" this summer and hopefully have my first bed built by fall... with my first grow season in Spring of 2016. If I'm lucky enough, plant some cooler season variety before the end of this year. I'm also hoping to grow some seedlings inside later this year in prep for Spring 2016. I want to start small, but I want a "big picture" already drawn out so I can expand in phases and hopefully - if I'm lucky - full realize the full plan. At some point, I want to draw it all out and have an overall plan for this "addition" to the yard... and have it in a way that maintains, or even enhance, aesthetics of the yard. So though I want to start small, I'm gathering as much as I can so I can plan for the rest of the garden. I'll start off in one area and build from there in subsequent years following the plan. Again - thank you for all the responses. Skybird... I get the point of making sure to get all the weeds out of the lawn (where I will place the beds). I'll have to google it a bit to see what's the best way to exterminate weeds, including their roots once I clear the area of grass. I've got an area in the backyard that I think is a good candidate to be carved out for the garden. I haven't measured, but I'm pretty sure it gets at least 6 hours of sun. Mix in some of the topsoil into the subsoil - dully noted! Thanks for that tip! Dan... turfgrass rhizomes. I assume you mean rhizomes shooting under my bed walls and surfacing inside my bed. The plan I have is to have the garden completely sectioned off from the rest of the yard - fence, paths, and all. At the turf edge, I'll like install edging to keep the lawn at bay. My initial recon has gotten me some good ideas on how to install plastic sheeting as to extend my growing season - using PVC pipes as my wall support and hoops placed into the pipes, etc etc. I definitely plan on having plans for that. Maxin... Yes... irrigation will be a big factor in the plans. Based on what I've read and watched, drip systems seems to the the ideal and overhead irrigation is discouraged. I definitely have some specific questions around this topic, but I think I'll save them for another thread. But at this point, I think much of my initial leg work will be setting up the new irrigation lines, but also re-routing/displacing the existing lawn sprinkler heads. Anyway... I'll post my initial plans/layout soon and have you guys critic it. Lastly, I wanted to share a video I found in youtube where I'm getting a bunch of my initial information. It seems to be a video made in the 80's by a gardening author/expert name Jeff Ball - seems to know what he's talking about. 53 minutes long - he take the beginner from start to finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO2CLU-O6mU
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It is not "wee critters that munch on the wood" that causes the problem - it is how well the wood will hold up to soil moisture. Wood exposed to water rots, some woods faster than others. Douglas fir is not all that long lived when in contact with moisture....only 3-6 years. Pine ditto. But cedars (western red cedar, Alaska cedar, incense cedar and eastern red cedar) are very rot resistant, as is redwood, black walnut, white oak and eucalyptus - anywhere from 10-25 years. Treated doug fir is also good (up to 30 years) but untreated, not at all. And a liner can extend the life of raised bed wood just by virtue of keeping wet soil from direct contact. As to soil appropriate to a raised bed, garden soil enriched with some compost works perfectly fine - you don't need to get overly creative in the mix. A raised bed is just an elevated garden bed, nothing more. If you do not have sufficient soil available to fill your beds, bagged garden soil or bulk 'garden mix' will work perfectly well although I'd want to add some OM if none included in the mix. Raised beds sometimes have solid bottoms and are sometimes located on solid surfaces like driveways or patios but open to the ground on the bottom is most desirable, especially for good drainage. So no rock or stone base. This also allows deeper rooted plants to penetrate down into the indigenous soil as well. Decent drainage is usually a given, just based on the bed's elevation. The "standard" configuration for a raised bed is one that is 8' long by 4' wide. This allows the gardener to access all the plants easily by reach alone without actually entering the bed itself. Height is your choice - if you are growing deeper rooting plants, you might want a deeper bed - but anywhere from 8-16" is about ideal. Obviously the deep the bed, the more soil required. Watering can be done with a soaker hose, drip, by hand or with a sprinkler - it really doesn't matter as long as the plants receive adequate moisture as needed.
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lavernialadybug
15 years ago
You could add the peat moss but I would also find either organic humus or bags of cow manure. Anything you add will help the soil and don't forget to mulch everything after it starts growning.
ishoot
15 years ago
Are you near a Living Earth Technologies site? They are in several Texas metro areas, www.livingearth.net
I've built some raised beds, and will be using their Specialty Planting Mix, full of compost with greensand and expanded shale as well. You can get lots of good soil and veggie garden info on the Dirt Doctor website too, www.dirtdoctor.com

Here is a link that might be useful:
uhohgardner
15 years ago
Rebekah,
We got a pickup load (about 1 cu yd) at a place in Sherman. There was a bedding soil mixture, and also mulch available. One was about 30 dollars for the load, the other I think was more like $65. It was a place where we had bought rocks for landscaping, north on 78. Probably many places like this in other towns near you.
Lonny
scgirl816
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, I LOVE your picture! Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'm so excited to get started. Ishoot...how did you build your beds? Just 2x6's nailed together? Also, what are the dimensions? I think we'll just do one bed this year, but if I am successful, I would love to have a place like yours. We have a big enough backyard to line one side with beds. That would be awesome!

Thanks everyone! It's raining today, but I think this weekend, I will go buy the rest of the stuff needed and get it started. Thanks for the websites too!
runjbells
15 years ago
I use The Square Foot Gardener method and built a 4x4 bed above ground (2x10x8 were the wood dimensions). The soil mix the book recommends is expensive but pays off in the long run:
1 bale peat moss - 6 cubic feet
1 large bag of coarse vermiculite - 4 cubic feet
10 pails (2.5 gallon size) of sand
10 pails (2.5 gallon size) compost
1 coffee can full of lime
1 coffee can full of organic fertilizers

Good luck with your garden!
ishoot
15 years ago
SCgirl, I used untreated 2x12 lumber and heavy duty deck screws, and the bed dimensions are 4x8 feet. For each bed I took three eight foot pieces, and cut one in half to make the ends. Avoid the pressure treated lumber ( the CCA stands for copper, chromium, and arsenic). Cedar is best, just make sure you're sitting down when they tell you the price...you can still get a few seasons out of plain untreated lumber and save some money.
The floor you see is landscape fabric, which will let moisture through but keep down the grass. I'll cover the pathways with cedar mulch. Inside the beds, I'll cut out the landscape fabric so I'll have a good soil interface for earthworms and beneficial microbes. Before the soil goes in I'll add a layer of cardboard just to make sure no grass/weeds have a chance to peek through.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised bed material analysis
catlady10
15 years ago
To save money on soil, I noticed that Lowe's has broken bags of organic compost,humas , manure,gardening soil and such.They cut the price by 50% so that does make it more affordable.Just as the garden folks to help you locate the bags and they will even put them in a clear plastic bag for you.
Sowth Efrikan
15 years ago
I'm busy with my first sfg/victory garden and found a mix from Bergers Horticultural in Hopkins county - it has everything mixed in it already, including vermiculite and peat moss, and is about $4 for 3 cubic feet.

Need help in starting a raised bed veggie garden - Soil Mixture ?

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Need help in starting a raised bed veggie garden - Soil Mixture ?

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