How To Make Your Own Raised Bed Soil

You have actually picked to garden in raised beds. The frames are set and it is time to fill them with fertile soil that will function as an excellent growing medium for your garden plants.

One option is to buy an excellent grade of commercial soil, but that can quickly break the bank. The very best service is to make your own.

You night want to begin by taking a soil sample from the garden. The test results can help determine what you need to add to the soil to improve it.

Fertile Soil Dish

What makes up fertile, healthy soil? It includes a mixture of minerals, natural matter, air and water. The raw material can be either plant or animal material such as manure that has gone through the composting procedure. When entirely disintegrated, it is called humus.

The perfect soil sample has a granular, crumbly structure that provides great drain. The loose soil will also allow oxygen and carbon dioxide to stream freely within the dirt.

A fundamental recipe for making your own soil is to utilize equivalent volumes of peat moss, coarse vermiculite and compost. The compost helps keep the soil loose.

Adding Organic Matter for Rich, Fertile Soil

If for some reason you can not make your own soil, include natural matter to your dirt to promote fertility. Raw material such as composted plant and animal products such as manure helps the soil maintain nutrients that the garden plants require to grow. Adding natural matter to sandy soil aids in water retention. Including natural matter to clay soil assists to loosen up the dirt.

Including mulch to the raised garden beds is another method of adding natural matter. Nevertheless, you might not understand the benefits (aside from assisting to eliminate weeds) right now, however the mulch will break down gradually and act as a good source of extra organic matter.

Making your own garden compost is easy to do and it assists keep lawn, vegetable and fruit waste out of our garbage dumps. It can be as easy as collecting the trash bags your neighbors fill with leaves. Poke a few holes in the bags near the top and bottom. This permits oxygen and water to get in the bags and enables co2 and excess water to get away. Add a shovel of garden soil to the bags. Include a little water to the bags. Mix by rolling the bag on the ground. It is a good idea to roll the bags every few weeks. Voila. Come spring, you’ll have a source of fertile nutrients you can contribute to your raised garden beds.

Desire more details about raised bed gardening?

Read Cornell Cooperative Extension’s. guide to raised bed gardening. .

This. Gardening in Small Spaces. article from the University of Kentucky’s Cooperative Extension Program is an excellent source of details for those who garden in small locations.