Making Raised Bed Soil Mix
What Should I Fill My Raised Bed
What you fill your raised beds with really depends on you, you can pick up packaged raised bed soil mix at your local garden center. You can use regular topsoil if you need to, organic, not organic, or you can make it yourself as we do. The important thing is to pick what will work for you. Whether you want to go with organic raised bed soil mix or just regular soil mix it’s up to you.
Why Make Your Own Raised Bed Soil Mix
We like to make our own raised bed soil mix because we know exactly what’s in it, and its a great way of recycling and using the compost from the chicken coops. You can learn more about starting a compost in this article. I like the control making our own raised bed soil mix gives us, and the fact that we can adjust it easily as needed which means we can make the perfect mixture for my blueberry bushes or to grow tomatoes and lettuce in.
Can I Fill My Raised Bed With Just Compost
While you can fill your raised beds with just compost, you run the risk of having soil that drains too fast. This will wash away the nutrients your plants need. If your compost isn’t well-rotted it will burn your plants which means it’s best to use a raised bed soil mix that will have everything your plants need to thrive.
How To Make Raised Bed Soil Mix
This is the base raised bed soil mix recipe for all the soil we use in our raised beds, for individual plants we adjust it as necessary. For blueberries, we add things like coffee grounds to the soil also.
Ingredients:
1/3 Vermiculite
1/3 Peat Moss
1/3 Composted Manure
Directions:
Pour your ingredients for the raised bed soil mix into a wheelbarrow or raised bed and mix well. When it’s well combined smooth into your raised bed, don’t press or pack it in you want it to stay light and fluffy. Make sure you fill your raised bed as much as you can (without it washing out when it rains) to give the roots of your plant’s plenty of room to grow.
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