soil for raised beds

[geejay]

I have just built myself two raised beds but at a loss as to what to fill it with in respect to soil, compost and/or manure, will be growing carrots, potatoes, possibly beetroot but also basil, rosemary to name but two. some advice would be appreciated.

[Martin H]

Hi, welcome to the vine!

What's the soil like where the raised beds are? Or are they on concrete or some such? Also, how big are they?

Personally I've avoided raised beds so far. Daunted by the cost of filling them up, I've concentrated on improving the stony clay that is the natural soil round here, by piling on all the free, uncontaminated organic matter I can lay my hands on.

But there are raised bed experts on here who will be along shortly.

[Penellype]

No idea if this is "right" but what I do is:

If it is on soil, cover the base of the raised bed with cardboard (keeps out most of the perennial weeds).
Fill the bottom of the bed with any organic matter I can find - part rotted compost or fresh weeds, horse manure (if known to be safe from weedkillers), garden trimmings etc (avoid perennial roots and things that have gone to seed), leaves, grass cuttings, shredded paper, cardboard, natural textiles such as wool or cotton etc. You can put things in layers to make a "lasagne" bed. I then top it off with well rotted compost or the contents of spent grow bags etc depending on what is available. If I have any I may add some soil. Basically the more inorganic matter (soil, sand etc) you add, the less topping up you will need to do in future. If everything you add is organic you will find that the filling sinks as the contents rot down. I would therefore be more inclined to use at least some soil if I was planting perennials like rosemary. If everything you are adding is very fresh you might like to leave it a little while to rot a bit as some things (particularly grass) can get very hot and scorch young plants.

For root crops I would be wary of adding manure. It contains a lot of nitrogen and this can cause the roots to become "hairy" or fork. Potatoes are ok in manure - the potatoes are technically not roots they are swollen underground stems.

[Tiny Allotment]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

We fill our raised beds with anything we can get our hands on for free. Lots of stables have trouble getting rid of horse manure so offer to go round and collect it on a regular basis.

We also get seaweed from the beach after a storm. leaves from the neighbourhood in the autumn. It is surprising how many people gather up leaves and grass clipping and put them out to be collected by the council and then drive down to the garden centre and buy compost.

Grass clippings can be added to your beds but only in thin layers.
.
Pile up leaves for a year or two and add them to your beds

Are there any mushroom farms near you. You can get spent compost from them.

the council recycling centres sometimes sell off compost cheap or give it away to certain members of the community.

You don't have to fill your beds in one go. just get enough in there to start growing and keep adding organic matter as you go.

You can add layers of shredded paper and cardboard to your beds

Do you know anyone who keeps chickens?

Chicken bedding can be added to beds but is best if it is composted for a year or so

Start a compost heap today

Get waste material from your friends, family and neighbours

paul

[skeggijon]

Hi geejay and welcome. Our noseyness means that we'll all be waiting with baited breath for pictures

I almost exclusively grow in raised beds. My preferred method is to start off by laying cardboard at the bottom to hold back the weeds, then usually 1/3 well rotted farmyard manure, 1/3 home made compost and finally 1/3 topsoil.
I get the topsoil from people advertising on freecycle, preloved or gumtree and haven't had to pay for it so far. the manure I get from a dairy farm thats conveniently just round the corner from me, but horse manure is nearly as good and can easily be found on preloved free - or at least very very cheap

[Snadger]

Builders sand is reasonably cheap and is a good additive mixed with everything mentioned previously.

[Bigmallly]

Hi geejay, welcome to the vine. I'll not add to what has already been advised except to say in line with Snadgers post, I would have a dedicated area for Carrots consisting of a sand/soil mix. As said, Carrots may fork in Manure.

[bario1]

I piled a massive load of rotted leaves where I wanted my raised bed, and left them there over winter. Then I dug a 6" trench round the pile, putting the soil from the trench on top of the leaves. I lined the trench with old fertiliser bags, and then filled with wood chippings. Then I built the wooden sides of the bed, and mixed up the soil and leafmould inside. Great for root veg!

[Tiny Allotment]

If you cut the grass in the autumn when the lawn is covered with dry leaves you get a lovely mix of greens and browns which is perfect to compost and turn into soil for next year.

I used the lawn mower -set to high if the grass doesn't need cutting- as a quick and easy way to pick up fallen leaves. It also chops them up a little which makes composting faster and means they as less likely to form and impenetrable layer in your compost heap.

paul

[Kirk]

My raised bed has had just about anything and everything added to it, started out with the soil that was there, added compost, some composted bark chips, mini chip bark, manure, anything I shredded, more assorted compost and manure and the spent compost+manure from containers that I grew stuff in and soil from other bits of the garden. And the occasional bag of aggregate added for drainage and to maintain the structure.

Found that I would buy 3 bags of compost in a 3 for £?? offer then use 2 in containers, eventually the other was emptied on to the raised bed. Then the spent container material went in/on.

Over the years it has sort of gained in height as I added more edging, but it is as high as makes sense now about 18 to 20 inches. To increase the height would mean a bit of a rebuild of one side. From now on it is likely to be mainly manure that gets added, it needs no or little further height of soil.

I wouldn't waste too much time thinking about it, the present soil, few bags of compost and a couple bags of manure. Dig it all together, break up any lumps, plant something. You do not have to fill it to the top immediatly.

I would not put rosemary in, a raised bed is sort of the wrong place of that.
If you want herbs then go look at Aldi or Lidl, they keep having pots of herbs at 60 to 90p. Just planted a Corriander I got cheap. It was a good plant growing happily and healthy but it was on it's sell by date at Tesco, so 20p.