Question about bagged topsoil

[ashkat]

Hiya *waves*

As this is my first post...I'm Nikki, mum of 4 young girls and American ex pat living in Scotland. A few years back, I grew a small container garden and had fairly good luck with that and caught the veg growing bug! Sadly (and joyfully), I then gave birth to my youngest children, my identical twin girls and then there was no time for even thinking, much less growing! They are now coming up on 3 years old and I am finding that I have once again, the necessary time to give to vegetables. Add that to the fact that I recently quit smoking, and my life is in desperate need of a new (healthy, productive) addiction!

So...my question. I'm installing a greenhouse and 2 2m x 6m raised beds (ground soil is almost entirely clay that feels as if you could throw a pot with and construction materials far too large for me to try and turn....at least they threw grass on top, right?! I'm trying to find the cheapest option for filling my raised beds and have found a top soil that says it's a mix of top soil and soil conditioner (the blurb also says something about compost in the soil). Can I use something like this alone or do I need to treat it as a plain top soil and mix in compost and manure? I am pretty good at figuring things out for myself but this has got me properly confused!

Also, it doesn't seem as if my council has any sort of public compost and I really have no access to anything that's free that I know of...I am going to start a compost bin this year, but as I said, I am going full out, going from nothing but a mud-hell garden (being fixed this week) to everything, so I really just need to get everything up and running suitably and then improve in coming years.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! I know I'm late in the game, that I should've started this before last winter...at least I have many of my seeds already germinating inside, ready for transplant into the greenhouse or beds (other than the things that need sown directly of course).

Sorry for the waffle....I tend to do that - kill people with information *blush*

[veggiechicken]

Hi Ashkat and welcome. Can't help you with your topsoil question, sorry, but just wanted to say hello!!

[Newton]

Welcome ashcat....fine new addiction you've chosen. Where in the us are you from? Love Idaho potatoes.....

[ashkat]

Welcome ashcat....fine new addiction you've chosen. Where in the us are you from? Love Idaho potatoes.....

Thank you
I came here from Florida. Melbourne to be exact, about 40 min south of Orlando on the east coast.

[Newton]

Enjoy the vine and growing.".....

[Pa Snips]

Welcome aboard.

I don't know the answer to your soil question but one thing I learned from here was not to make beds too wide, at 2m (6.5ft) you might find it awkward reaching the middle comfortably without walking on it.
Anyhow, I hope you get it all figured out.

[ashkat]

Welcome aboard.

I don't know the answer to your soil question but one thing I learned from here was not to make beds too wide, at 2m (6.5ft) you might find it awkward reaching the middle comfortably without walking on it.
Anyhow, I hope you get it all figured out.

Holy ****!!! I just realized what I wrote lol. The beds are going to be 4ft by 6ft. This is what happens when you are trying to do the math for soil amounts late at night! No functioning braincells lol. I wish I had room for beds that big! Can you imagine how much soil they would need?! O.o

[rustylady]

Hi Ashcat. Welcome to the Vine. Soil conditioner is the name usually given to Council compost, so if your topsoil is mixed with this it should be fine for your beds.

[OverWyreGrower]

If you are after some soil conditioner/compost - try asking around at local riding stables... they usually have huge muck heaps; and will often have to pay someone to take it away... they might let you have a few bags for free!

We have quite heavy soil, and I tend to use the actual garden soil, mixed with either horse-poop, or our own chicken-poop manure, and I've also bought in topsoil (over 2 tons so far...) to mix with that.

The topsoil we got in (in ton builders bags) has been ok so far... not too many weeds etc, and a nice fine consistency. I've mixed it with well rotted manure of one kind or another, and it seems to be OK

[taff]

you should be able to use that alone, but it'll be cheaper if you can mix in other stuff. As owg says, riding stables are good, so too any kind of muck [without wood chippings, take too long to decompose], also ask your neighbours for their grass clippings, to mulch your beds with, or ask them for their kitchen scraps too if you think you can get away with it
anyhting organic, leaves, the top growth of non-flowring weeds can go on the botom of your bed, then your soil stuff, then something to mulch with.
Have a look at lasagna gardening too for some ideas.

and welcome....

[ashkat]

Oh, thank you for the advice! I can certainly ask my neighbour for her kitchen scrapes, but she rarely has any lol, I do the most of the cooking for her!

So basically, what I'm getting from all of my reading is that you really can't mess up too much? Compost, topsoil, green organics, well-decomposed poo, paper, twigs.....kitchen sink?! The quantities of each are specific to the gardener.

Oh, and my greenhouse is winging it's way as we speak....now just need the workers to show up and fix my garden!

Ps...sneaky question? Blood and bone fertilizer.... Is this good for all? Or must I do something different for the plants that like other things? I've got two beds to sort, I can do the soil mix differently in both, but those mixes have got to be able to support all the veg im growing in them. Does that make sense?

[salome2001]

main things to remember are: carrots don't like it rich (manured), pumpkins etc like all the pony poo they can get, and brassicas don't like it acidic. If the carrots are going to end up in somethig with a lot of manure you can either live with weirdly shaped root veg, or grow them in containers.

[ashkat]

main things to remember are: carrots don't like it rich (manured), pumpkins etc like all the pony poo they can get, and brassicas don't like it acidic. If the carrots are going to end up in somethig with a lot of manure you can either live with weirdly shaped root veg, or grow them in containers.

Thank you! I think I can work with that.... The question to ask would be, what would thrive with the carrots? I've got parsnips (assume they will go well), cauli, cabbages, a few squash varieties....one mystery squash which looks like a grayish pumpkin but resembles a spaghetti squash on the inside. Got it from a farmers market, and when I got it home, there was a seed already germinating inside it. Couldn't throw it away! Also have a few onion varieties, courgette and cukes (gh). Oh theres more but can't think! Most of the rest I think goes in the gh. Blame the husband, he's a chef and a huge portion of our food budget is spent on veg! I'm telling him that this is just to save money, but I think he sees the gleam of addiction in my eyes. Coulda been when he picked out 13 (!!!!) varieties of toms and I said yes *blush*. God help me.

[salome2001]

from a companion planting point of view, stick your onions with your carrots, they are *supposed* to help confuse carrot fly, but I wouldn't rely on this over enviromesh

[Potstubsdustbins]

Blood, fish and bone (BFB) is a good general fertiliser usually NPK neutral a good dressing of this or its chemical equivalent growmore before planting would only do good.

Later as your plants develop you may need to use different fertilisers some higher in nitrogen the (N) bit and others higher in potash the (K) bit.

Nitrogen is good for green growth though you can overdo it and have all greenery and little fruit. Potash is good for developing fruit, toms, chilli's, cumbers, squash, well just about anything really. I even use it on my potatoes.

Colin