Raised bed

[Luke6]

Hi I have a raised bed I'm currently making and I have put also of compost in. Shall I use normal soil off the garden by getting the stones out etc and mix it all up or shall I just fill it up with compost. I'm new to all this so any advice would be great


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[Luke6]

'A lot'


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[sparrow100]

Mine are mostly soil, with a barrow of compost and a barrow or two of manure to lighten it - mine's heavy clay. Filling with just compost would be too pricey for me, I've got 10 x 1.2m wide/5m long beds.

[Madasafish]

I have just filled mine today: a layer of compost, then earth then used potting compost. Stirred well. A dash of FBB, then planted strawberries.

[Kristen]

The majority of the height of my raised beds came from excavating the paths between them, one spade's depth, and adding that soil to the bed - which also either increased the height of the beds, or improved the drainage more, depending on your viewpoint!

[Veggielot]

I would use soil if you have it, you can top it up with compost if you need to.

[Bill HH]

My beds are 9 inches deep, I started them off with layers of cardboard and whole newspapers, the peelings and the like, then home made compost and finaly MPC, this year i have topped them up with some really nice top soil and home made compost, added some bllood fish n bone meal. Also on some beds a good helping of chicken manure pellets. I dont stir it as you said. best left to its own devices.

[Dorothy rouse]

I've just got 4 new raised beds and they do take a lot of filling, tons! They were on top of existing Stoney area that has had potatoes for last 2years. Cardboarded during winter, remains of compost bins, chippings,top soil from Hom...base, MPC, it's a bit never ending, but have now started sowing, will top up again at end of year, manure and cardboard.

[Ja9]

It takes far more than you can imagine to fill them. I used soil, home made compost and soil conditioner from the local tip which is much cheaper than regular bagged compost.

[NicolaD]

Hi Luke, I used this website How to Calculate Soil Volume in Raised Beds, Soil Calculator, square foot gardening to work out how much I needed to fill my beds. After reading this post I think I could benefit from putting in some cardboard at the bottom of my beds before I fill with compost. I dont have any spare soil in my garden so will reply on large bags of compost. My dad has a B&Q trade card and I will be buying this: Verve Multipurpose Compost 125L, 0000003717646 with his discount I think it works out somewhere around £4.90 a bag for me. Will be around £40 to fill my two raised beds (until I use some cardboard now that I have found that tip!).

Before I found out about the discount I could get at B&Q I was planning on buying the compost that my local tip sells called revive.

I'm going to be doing sqft gardening (I replied to your question on my thread about that), and keep coming across Vermiculite which I've seen for around £5 per 10L I think I will need to add this too as many of the comments regarding sqft gardening recommend it. I'll try and keep it in the top layer of the bed.

[Newishgardener]

We have found as nicola has pointe out that te verve compost from B&Q is very good we have put raise beds in this yeah I have put cardboard in the bottom with a layer of home made compost as then filled them up with the verve compost if your beds are around 1 square meter by 15cm deep I know it's around 180 liters of compost you need.


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[Kristen]

Hi Luke, I used this website How to Calculate Soil Volume in Raised Beds, Soil Calculator, square foot gardening to work out how much I needed to fill my beds.

Google will do that for you and you won't be restricted on which units you use (in particular the result might be better in Litres if you are buying in bags). If you type something like this into Google (with the "=" on the end) it will act as a calculator, the main benefit is that it isn't fussy about units (you do need the spaces around the "x" though):

72 inches x 36 inches x 8 inches in cubic yards =
or
72 inches x 36 inches x 8 inches in litres =

or even: mixed units that would suit my raised beds!

4 feet x 10 metres x 8 inches in litres =

I will be buying this: Verve Multipurpose Compost 125L, 0000003717646

I know of Square Foot Gardening, but not tried it or read enough to have seen any recommendations. Are you planning to mix that with existing soil (at least 50% soil)? If not then I wonder if it would be better to buy half as Multipurpose Compost and half as Topsoil bags?

I would also be inclined to buy some of the bags as rotted manure, rather than MPC, but again I have no knowledege of S.F.G.

keep coming across Vermiculite which I've seen for around £5 per 10L I think I will need to add this too as many of the comments regarding sqft gardening recommend it. I'll try and keep it in the top layer of the bed.

Interesting. Vermiculite retains moisture, and I can imagine that would be helpful (probably no benefit if your soil is heavy, sand might be better for raised beds on heavy soil?), but near the surface I fear it will blow away when it comes to the top, and dries out in the sun, and then you have even a light breeze. That stuff is lighter than a feather when dry!

Shop around on price, I buy Vermiculite in 100L bags for £10-£15, so buying it in small 10L bags at a fiver works out expensive. I use horticultural grade (because I use it in micro-propagation and particle size and sterilisation are important to me), but it might be that Vermiculite sold for building (e.g. flue liner insulation) would do fine for your "bulk use", and be a lot cheaper.

[Bill HH]

I agree with Kristen, i think you will have beds that are too light and fluffy for many plants, the addition of some top soil and perhads manure would improve this. Brassicas in particulat like a firmer soil.

[Two_Sheds]

Shall I use normal soil off the garden ... or shall I just fill it up with compost.

MPC is too light & fluffy for long-term use, although it's fine for seedlings, which are then planted in the ground. Topsoil is what you need to "beef up" your raised beds, but it's going to have a lot of weed seeds in it, so use it on the bottom half of the beds, and top up with shop bought compost (a John Innes No.3 is beefier than cheap MPC)

Garden compost is a great addition, when you have it. You can make lasagne beds, which are basically a compost heap in a raised bed. If you top that with a layer of about 5" of fine topsoil, you can plant straight into it. It's what I did at school, which had only 2" of very poor soil

[Luke6]

I've bin filling my raised bed with compost and topsoil with organic matter and it's still not finished and it's getting quite pricey. Could I dig the soil up at the top of the garden. It has quite a few little stones in it would that be a problem. I don't want to lose heart on it but I don't want to keep spending loads of money on it. I now have learnt I should of made it smaller but least it's a lesson learnt


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