Raised Bed like moondust

[Jonnyt]

I've made some raised beds using used compost, various different ones. One has literally gone to dust, finer than sand and is dry as a bone. As a subsequence nothing is growing there other than a few weeds.

It seems to me that the compost must have been peat free and a year or two later has no water retention. What options do I have to address this and make the bed productive again?

[Penellype]

The first thing I would do is get some rotted horse manure from a local riding stables and dig it in. I would then mulch the bed with something like grass clippings or straw, or even cardboard around the plants to retain the moisture.

[Jonnyt]

That's great thanks I was thinking of horse manure and potentially some vermiculite

[ameno]

Vermiculite won't help; if anything, it may make it worse.
Manure will help, but what you really want is soil. The best mix for any raised bed or large permanent container uses at least 50% soil. All compost, of any kind, including manure, isn't good enough at holding water and nutrient, Not to mention all types of compost continue to decompose over time, so you'll get a lot more shrinkage with all compost beds.

[peacegarden2024]

I find peat free compost it be useless.

[rary]

The soil thats in my tomato bed was made by using manure, course sand, seaweed and green waste made up of grass, weeds and vegative kitchen waste, it was all mixed together then put into a large builders bag and left over the winter, in the spring I planted three trombonceos and had a great crop, I then transferred it into the greenhouse tomato bed and still growing tomatoes in it for the third year, I top up the bed over winter with a bag of seaweed and the soil looks and feels good