Raised bed gardening- what soil do I get?
by
Wendy
+5
We tried to do a raised bed. Even the bagged dirt we bought ended up with weeds in it although we did put down a barrier. I don't want to buy topsoil and get all those weeds, so what soil do I get? The bagged dirt gets so hard and is difficult to loosen up!
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Garden soil is the best to use for that. Tops soil is for seeding lawns.
use a soiless potting soil. Google square foot gardening, there are a number of 'recipes' for potting soil. That should cut down on the number of weeds and the square foot design (if you choose to use this method) is another way to reduce you level of weeding
Weeds did not come in the bagged soil. Weeds are a part of nature and a part of life, all we can do is control them. Constant weeding is the solution. You can put down cardboard or newspaper in between your plants to keep weeds to a minimum. Then place mulch on top.
Try using tar paper
tar paper
Any soil that you buy will have some weeds. It is only natural, as all soil no matter how careful they are will get exposed to them. When I put soil in my pots I always mix in Preen weed preventer and that seems to pretty much take care of what comes in the soil. I always put Preen down in my gardens in the spring and maybe once more about half way into the growing season. I never use top soil in pots or gardens as top soil is not amended in any way to help with the health of plants and you need to amend it heavily with peat moss, manure, etc. to lighten it up. Top soil is just what it says, top soil for a new lawn or filling in holes, etc. Back in the eighties when I started my first veggie garden potting soil was really expensive so I did use top soil, but I put in one bag of top soil and one bag of manure and one bag of potting soil that we tilled in on the second tilling. That was our way of making sure the soil was healthy so the garden would grow healthy. I had so much produce that our oldest son would take bags of produce in his wagon all over the block to give to neighbors.
I have tried both newspaper and cardboard. I guess I have to be resigned to weeding continually.
we had a french intensive raised bed garden. soil was was sawdust, compost and the red clay dirt in Indiana. used a lot of miracle grow and had great plants 10 feet high. just got to pull the weeds. no way out of that.
what brand was used