Inexpensive Raised Bed Soil Mix - Fill your Garden for less.
Tips, Tricks
Is the best raised bed soil mix for under $20? Last year we used Mel's mix to fill our two raised beds and vowed to find a less expensive way for the future. For those who do not know Mel's mix is a great solution for square foot gardening. It consists of one part compost, one part peat, and one part vermiculite. The only issue with this mix is if you want to do this on a larger scale or with larger raised beds you will spend more money filling the beds than you will recoup over your first few years or gardening! The biggest issue we had was finding a good source of the vermiculite and had to order it online. We also sourced the rest of the fill from local big box stores and bought everything by the bag. All in all this turned out to be over $60-70 per bed that we filled and was way more than we were willing to spend. We knew that this year we needed a better solution and I hope we have found it! I spent a lot of time trying different mixes researching different options and this is what I came up with. There are three main components of a good raised bed or gardening soil. The first is nutrients, you have to have a good base of nutrient rich soil. In our case we are using a composted manure for the majority and will also amend throughout the year with worm castings and our backyard compost. This provides all of the N-P-K macronutrients as well as the micro nutrients needed for most plants to thrive. Compost is available from local farms, big box stores by the bag, and free if you have your own compost pile! The second component is something to allow the soil to retain water and also provide aeration to the soil. In our case we are using Spagnum peat moss to fulfill this need. Peat is one of the best things for retaining water and nutrients as well as providing aeration for the soil and roots. This helps to prevent the compost from clinging together and drying out and also provides needed air the roots of the plants. The peat moss was the most expensive part of the mix but since we aren't using that much we were able to still get some benefits of the peat without breaking the bank. The last main components is something to provide drainage. In my case I chose to use sand because it is locally available, cheap, and does a great job at keep the soil loose and allowing water to drain through. You can get sand from any landscape supply for the best price or by it in bags just about anywhere. The ratio that I chose to use is pretty close to 60-70% Compost, 15-20% peat, and 15-20% sand. This gave me a nutrient rich soil that is light and fluffy, does not compact, and hold moisture very well. Only this years growing season will tell the full story of how well this works out for us but just working with this soil over the past week has me with high hopes. The total estimated cost for the this soil mix for us was about $ .92 per cubic foot. This is just an estimate and your costs will vary depending on time of year and how you are able to source the sand and compost. This is a huge leap in the right direction for us as we are expanding our small homestead gardening operation this year by quite a bit. With plans to double our gardens again next year this soil mix has the potential to save us a lot of money and provide excellent soil for our gardens! Compost purchased from Turtlebee Farms Byron, Mi General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20 Please check us out at www.simplesuburbanliving.com and follow us on.... http://www.pinterest.com/simplesuburban/ http://www.facebook.com/simplesuburbanliving http://www.twitter.com/simplesuburban5 http://www.instagram.com/simplesuburbanliving Music - "Me and Billy Barnum" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/MeandBillyBarnum
Comments
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Would live an update on this, with growing plants! 🌱
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Can I use sand from a sandbox? I have a challenge coming up to work with 30 students to change a sandbox into a vegetable garden raised bed. Thanks.
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You got so lucky with that manure coming with worms :)
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Great music.
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How much did you pay for the wood for the raised beds? Pine?
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In my experience and thoughts I think you are missing some good clay/silty soil in your raised bed. What I did in my area where I have good clay soil is to use that as the base 50% and then add sand and cow pop compost to it. Peat moss I don't think is necessary as long as you put in plenty of composted cow poop. Clay and silt is important in my experience.
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will this work for weed??
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Great tips for filling up raised beds!
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Sadly I was not able to close to your $.97/CF cost but I did save $$ none the less. My bed is 32 CF. Local nursery cost was $3.52/CF delivered ($50 per yd). The premixed bags at HD equaled $4.23/CF. Using your recipe, my cost ended up being $2.34/CF. Used 60% Manure and 20% of both peet moss and sand. Note, I have been told to water and mix for at least a week before planting. Will most likely use this mix in all my future beds except I will use a 50/30/20 mix.Thanks again for your help in keeping my cost down!
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Hey! Local Michigander
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remember peat moss is acidic...might have to add lime
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I learned in Soil Science class that manure compost shouldn't be used too much because the excrement from animals naturally contains some salt. I guess the farmer could leach the salt out of the manure though.
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From what I've learned from some videos, use cattle, sheep, and/or chicken manure. Do NOT use hog manure. The comment below says that when wet compost dries out, it can get hard. I thought that the purpose of decayed compost is what keeps the soil crumbly, so when damp or dried, it crumbles easily. I've been putting leaves and organic waste from kitchen scraps on a small "dumping" area for over 20 years. And it very rapidly breaks down to make rich soil to where I don't need commercial fertilizer.I'm experimenting with 4 x 8 elevated gardens that set above the ground. I used 1 x 12 lumber that I treated with wood preservative. I realize that one should use 2 x 12 treated lumber (QCA that doesn't leach into the soil). But I've seen explosive growth in my plants, tomatoes, peas, radishes, and squash which are in only 7 inch deep soil. The one disadvantage is earth worms can't get in. I've mulched them with glass clippings as we are having exceptionally hot and dry weather here in north Missouri even in June, 2016. What about drainage, you may ask? In 2015, I lined the bottom with leaves and twigs which let them drain too much. This year I used plastic grain and cat food bags in which I poked small holes between the 1x4 slats in the floor. I haven't used sand, but it would be good to do so.
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Love your videos. How did this soil mixture work in the garden ? Getting a late start, but will be filling boxes this coming week and hoping to do it for less than when I used Mel's mix a few years ago.
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Great video man from a fellow Michigander :)
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great mix brotha. I use coir, worm castings, composted cow manure and good top soil (earth soil). Just a shout out to a great gardener. much continued success.
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here in oregon we can legally grow cannabis, i heard, i believe it was peat moss, wasnt good for using that in gardens. is that correct?
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Concerning the topic of wormers & herbicides in horse manure...
Not sure why a horse would eat herbicides. But if it does, the horse will no longer be making manure. So no risk.
As for worming meds... Ivermectin is the industry standard wormer for horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc, since 1983...
I worm all my 22 horses every 6 months with mere ounces. 75% of Ivermectin leaves the horse as waste.
With direct sunlight and or composting for 28 days, 98-99% of Ivermectin is gone.
Besides... Control v "Tainted" test showed worms flourishing in both. -
love Love LOVE L-O-V-E the scripture, let everyone know who you are in CHRIST, I had my pen and paper, excellent vid, thanks so much! just a thought: it seems to me that so very many people that work with gardens, farms, earth believe in ALMIGHTY GOD, and I think it' not too hard to see the connection : ) GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU AND MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU!!!!!! SHALOM
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