Soil for a Raised Bed

When picking the soil for a raised bed you need to take a few things into considerations money, time, and effort.

If you have more money than the other two buying the soil is a great way to get your raised garden bed going quick. You can use bagged garden soil, top soil, even potting soil to fill your raised garden frame. You can bring it home yourself, or have it delivered by a nursery that offers a delivery service. It can be purchased by the bag or truckload depending on how large a garden you have planned.

If you have less money but more muscle you can create a compost pile. Adding compost to the native soil you already have is a great way to get good quality soil. Digging the compost in however does take some effort. Nothing like a shovel or garden fork to get you sweating, who needs an aerobics program when you have a garden? The more complete a job you do at mixing the better your garden will be.

If you have lots of time and do not need your garden to be ready right now, you can try an in place composting method called lasagna gardening. Simply put all the stuff that you would have put into a compost bin onto the garden plot itself and wait a year. You will be able to plant straight into the bed with very little work.

Most people have a combination of time, money, and effort to work with. None of the above options are strict. You can mix and match until you find the right combination for you. A few hours while the kids are in school and you can work on a compost pile, a few extra bucks when the tax return comes and you can buy a few bags of soil from the store, during summer vacation a little child labor never hurt a garden.

Just do what you can, when you can, and how you can until you have a good quality soil to work with. The better your soil the better your plants will be. If you are impatient like me the soil gets worked when it can be worked but the plants tend to go in way too early and then get moved too often.

Having patience when gardening will definitely save you a lot of time, money, and effort, if you do not have patience however it is not the end of the world. Nothing has to be perfect the first go around, just keep on and it will get there…somehow. If you are going to plant garden seed, make sure you have a good fine texture seedbed for the top inch or so.

Gardening is a learning process and if anyone claims they know everything just nod and smile. All plants are different and I do not know one person that knows all there is to know about each and every one. Your garden is also unique, there is no other garden that has exactly the same soil, temperature, microclimate, or sunlight so doing what “everyone does” may not work in your garden. Shade plants that need good drainage such as Hosta Sieboldiana Elegans will enjoy a raised bed.

Experiment in your garden to find out what seems to work best. If you screw up you can always redo some stuff. It is not the end of the world, believe me, I am an expert at leaping first and considering second. It is more fun that way but I will admit that I’ve had to untangle a few messes that I created. Untangling the messes is a learning process in itself, learning what does not work can help you figure out what might work.

Good luck making that soil for your raised bed, hope it turns out just like you want.