
One of the benefits of raised bed gardening is drainage, but this feature also makes the soil requirements of your garden box a little different. You can fill your beds with your own yard topsoil, but if you want to give your plants the best chance, it’s a good idea to start fresh since you have an opportunity to prevent weeds. The following explores both options.
The Best Homemade Soil Blend:
50% screened topsoil made of healthy loam.
50% screened compost, which can be anything from your own compost, along with mushroom manure, animal manure, or fish compost.
The Best Premium Soil Blend:
1/3 peat moss
1/3 vermiculite
1/3 compost blend similar to the above
This last combination above will help eliminate weeds, but the real key to these combinations is the compost. No matter how great your topsoil is, your beds will fail dismally without compost, which will need to be added again every year.
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