question on raised beds

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How do you fill your raised beds? The soil in my area is very hard, almost concrete like, so I buy my soil at the garden store but this is getting expensive.Does anyone have an alternative? Do most people with raised beds buy their soil? Thanks Roxanne

-- Roxanne (Roxanne143@webtv.net), September 17, 2001

Answers

Response to question o raised beds

Hi Roxanne, I have dealt with some really hard soil as well. I would till up the hard soil as best you can, layer newspaper and mulch/compost over the tilled soil (2-3 layers) in the fall and then till again in the spring. It'll take a while to get good soil built up, but if you keep feeding it with organic matter you'll get there. The raised beds will help too.

-- Stacey Christiansen (stacey@lakesideinternet.com), September 17, 2001.

Response to question o raised beds

How big of an area do you need to fill? If its a larger area, have a truck bring in some top soil. churn it up, add more organic matter from a compost pile

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), September 17, 2001.

Response to question o raised beds

Hi Roxanne! It takes some time, but any soil should be eventually workable. If you till in or spread in organic matter, and manure, etc. you will enrich your soil for the following seasons. We tilled under some grass, and as it decomposed, it made BEAUTIFUL soil. (We are talking tall grass) Have also used old straw, sand to make it crumble easier, egg shells, any compost, chicken bedding, rabbit poo, etc. Just throw it on top and add another layer of dirt or whatever. It takes a lot of compost if your raised beds are big. The straw, newspaper, etc. will help keep the soil wet. Too much sand will drain it. Egg shells are great. I just mush them up and toss them on the garden area. They provide calcium for the plants and also spaceing on the soil. Old potato peels work as well. Any old rotten thing :o) I guess I'm not picky and variety gives all kinds of things back to the land. If all else fails or you are in a hurry, my sister buys dirt in a truckload from a local company. (topsoil) Much cheaper than bagged stuff. Hope this helps Brenda

-- Brenda (brenclark@alltel.net), September 17, 2001.

Response to question o raised beds

If you have a saw mill in your area untreated sawdust makes great mulch and breaks up clay soils (in NZ they give it away free) also if you have a race course close by they may have manure that they give away (in NZ also free). Talk to local Big Farmers and ask if they have any straw or hay that is spoiled that they don't want and offer to take it away for them. A sprinkling of lime will help all this decompose faster as well. Start a compost bin and layer with all these things plus household scraps, water from time to time add lime from time to time and you will have pre-prepared compost for next year.

-- Jenny Butler (heavenleigh2938@hotmail.com), September 17, 2001.

Response to question o raised beds

Check out no-dig gardens - both in the gardening categories of the older messages here, and by doing a web search from www.google.com. Everything people have mentioned above will work with no-dig gardening, and mixing manure with sawdust will help make the sawdust usable faster. At the end of it all, you'll have had earthworms multiply under your no-dig beds, and worked the soil over and through to the extent that if you can bear to go back to traditional methods, the soil will be much better and easier to work. Oh, yes - if you're talking large-scale then it wouldn't hurt to have the hard soil deep- ripped with a tractor and ripper before you established the beds - lets water and roots and earthworms penetrate easier and further.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), September 17, 2001.


Response to question o raised beds

We finally had a load of topsoil hauled in, but we needed to fill about 10 6x20 beds. In addition to the topsoil, we throw in table scraps (not meats), grass clippings, leaves, rabbit droppings, weeds everytime we weed the garden, hay/dirt/shavings/chicken manure from when we clean out the chicken pens.

It adds up pretty quickly!

-- Tracey (trjlanier@cs.com), September 17, 2001.


Response to question o raised beds

Hi, Roxanne, although there are lots of good suggestions here, I decided (my wife ordered me) to buy topsoil when we moved into our new house. We'd been working on the soil at the old place for twenty years, and it was satisfactory, although it continued to need LOTS of TLC every year.

The new place has basically potter's clay reinforced with boulders. You would need a small nuclear weapon to break it up--a tiller would have to have a death wish to even visit here. I did two foot deep concrete raised beds, and filled them with the best topsoil I could find. I'm still adding more raised beds, at the rate of four or five per year.

The top soil I'm buying costs $15 per yard, when purchased by the truck load (his truck only holds eight yards, btw).

I've also used this soil in all our landscape plantings. NEVER have I seen plants grow the way they do in this soil. I've also used it for landscape plantings around some rentals I've built. Everywhere there is unbelievable growth and health.

Basically this soil is granitic, with lots of manure added, and contains a lot of silt from a creek. All mixed up. I haven't added anything to it for the veggie garden except this planting mix my wife puts into the soil under each plant (bone meal, sunflower seed meal, various other organic stuff, I think)

Good luck!

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), September 17, 2001.


Response to question o raised beds

Some cheep sources of fertilizer & compostable material (needing lots of labor on your part) are stables & landscapers/lawn services companies. Many times you can get all the manure (mixed with old hay/feed & bedding) you want or are willing to haul for little money if not free. The back of the manure pile or down about 1 & one half feet deep should be older manure (also more composted). Meanwhile, you could make a deal with a local company or two (those that care for & cut lawns regularly) to bag when they cut (buying the clippings from them). Also ask those in your neighborhood to pile their fall leaves by the curb on a certain day for you to haul away (to your own compost pile/raised bed). Same goes for anyone cutting their own grass (if they have a bagger on their mower). All of this gives you horse manure with hay/feed & bedding mixed in, grass clippings, & leaves. Its a good combination for making compost or if left to cook longer (eventually) soil. It may seem like a lot, but two things are in your favor. One: as it decomposes, it will shrink, sink, and basically lose size. And two: if you shread (use lawn mower, or chipper/shreader depending on size of object needing chopped up) everything first before composting it, it will take less room, & will break down (compost) faster.

Hope this helps

animalfarms (IN)

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), September 18, 2001.


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