Was thinking of MiracleGro Natures Care Raised Bed Soil

[drainey0]

Need to start filling in my raised garden beds with some organic soil (soil with no chemicals added) was wondering if you guys have any good suggestion.

Was thinking about going with this soil:

Natures Care Raised Bed Soil

NATURES-CARE-RAISED-BED-SOIL.jpg (26.34 KiB) Viewed 1671 times

Then I was thinking of the land fill dirt but was worried about all the crap they might put into it what's your guys opinion?

[AnnaIkona]

You'd have to buy a lot of those bags to fill a raised bed. I suggest looking up local bulk soil companies. Their soil is super cheap ($13 /yard)

[drainey0]

My bed are only 1ft by 1 ft I'm thinking one bag will cover most of it.

[JC's Garden]

The big question is "What do you plan on growing?". Annuals and perennials require different types of soil. Most of the bagged soil I've seen holds too much water and needs to be mixed with a sandy soil or perlite to prevent root rot. How much to mix depends on what you want to grow and how much organic matter is in the bagged soil.

[rainbowgardener]

You made raised beds that are only one foot square? Why? You said plural, so why not make one bigger bed?

If you made four 1' x 1' beds, you have only four square feet of growing area and you used 16 linear feet of edging materials.

If you make one 4' x 8' bed, you have 32 square feet of growing area with 24 linear feet of edging material (i.e. eight times as much growing space for only 1.5 times as much edging). And it takes up a lot less garden space, since you have to have walking paths between your little square foot gardens.

Maybe you heard about square foot gardening and took it a little literally? The square foot gardeners use bigger beds and just section the square feet off with twine.

[drainey0]

I'm growing cucumbers. Peppers, snow peas, jalapeños, and tomatoes. I did 1x1 so I could space things out the way I wanted them spaced out.

[drainey0]

so should i use dirt from the land fill........go to a soil bulk soil company...... or buy the bag of soil i linked previously?

[Mr green]

Soil from your land fills might be heavilly polluted i reckon so i would avoid that for growing food. Bagged soil/organic matter to improve what you have on sight would be my best suggestion. I would rather get soil from a bulk company if they can tell me how/where their soil is from/made.

[imafan26]

The label says it can be used like potting mix and does not need to be mixed with soil, but it is an expensive way to go . How deep is the bed and is it on soil or a concrete patio. Tomatoes will need to have deep soil only one tomatoe will fit in 1 square and you will need a trellis, cage, or pole for it to climb on unless you get a determinate like New Big Dwarf which is more like a tree tomato that grows less than 3 ft tall, but even that needs staking. One pepper in each square You could probably put 3 cucumbers in one square with a trellis to climb up. I don't know where you live, but snow peas are a cool season crop and the rest are warm season. There is oly a small window of overlap. I have planted up to nine of those or beans in an 18 gallon pot.

You may have to make some choices since you only have 4-1 ft square beds and too many plants for them. Most of the plants will want to be 8-12 inches deep. The tomatoes probably would want to be even deeper.

If you are planning to space the plants out anyway, why not grow them in pots. 18 gallon pots will be good for 1 indeterminate tomato, Peppers can grow in tall pots. I like to use egg cans or 5 gallon buckets. I plant cucumbers in 15 gallon buckets and peas and beans I plant in 18 gallon pots since I can usually put about 9 plants in one pot on a tomato trellis. Containers allows you to move them to give each plant the space they need and you would use potting soil in the pots. The nature made soil will work but it takes a 2 cu ft bag of potting soil to fill an 18 gallon pot. The organic soil will still need to be supplemented with fertilizer. Fish emulsion, manure tea, bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, or fish meal, and it is better to use a mix like promix which contains mycorrhizzae to help with the uptake of nutrients. Organic in pots is difficult since organic fertilizers do not have nutrients readily available to the plants without being mineralized by the soil bacteria first. There is not much soil bacteria present in a pot and even less in a potting mix that has been sitting around for a while. If you are planning on planting heavy feeders like tomatoes and peppers it would be difficult to get them to grow and produce well without suplementing with fertilizer.

http://www.pthorticulture.com/en/produc ... e-organik/

[drainey0]

I've already bought the cedar to make the 1x1 1ft deep beds and I've already got a plan on what to add to my soil such as blood and bone meal and banana peels ......... I'm just wondering what soil to go with.

[drainey0]

I'm making about 8 beds 6 1x1 1ft deep and 2 2x1 1ft deep on top of soil.

[imafan26]

The soil mix you have chosen is organic and so is the promix, there are other choices like black Kow in other parts of the country. I don't think it matters. Just look at the ingredients to make sure it is organic. If it is certified it will have the OMRI stamp on it. As long as you know that you will probably have to supplement with additional fertilizer.

This product only recently came out, so I have not used it. Scott's came out with a bunch of new products this year. Tell us how it worked out later.

I could not find 2 cu ft bag of MG potting mix so I am trying hyponex again. I used it before and it worked until they started replacing too much of the peat moss with compost, but it looks like they have reformulated, so I guess I will find out after I try it.

[applestar]

Before you go ahead with this project, why don't you tell us a bit more about what you are trying to do?

-- technically 1 foot (12 inches) square box is not called raised bed but more like a container, and so far, most of the members who posted comments (I believe) are seeing inherent problems based on our experiences. This is a SMALL container for growing any of the plants you mentioned. Let us help you plan it out.

[drainey0]

Will I basically wanna grow vegtable in a raiseded bed. I've only got limited space and I'm putting the raised beds on top of soil. The squares I've made are 1x1 and there 1ft deep and then I have 2 2x1's rectangle that are also 1 ft deep I don't understand why people are saying this ain't enough to plant in when there is soil under neath that the roots could keep growing into..... I'm putting one plant per "container".

[applestar]

How fertile and loose is the soil? How much prep work were you planning to do to the soil underneath? If thoroughly worked for planting, then they will have the advantage to grow roots into the underlying soil, but it would be difficult to do so from inside the 1x1 fame. So you would do this first. But all the fluffing will make it unstable for the frames to rest on.

Otherwise, these might as well be solid bottom containers because plant roots will stay where they are comfortable.

I'm growing cucumbers. Peppers, snow peas, jalapeños, and tomatoes. I did 1x1 so I could space things out the way I wanted them spaced out.

As imafan described, they grow to occupy much more airspace than 1x1 or even 1x2. They would normally occupy corresponding amount of space below ground (or get root bound in a container -- with open bottom, they will escape below, but will not grow as vigorously as in loose rich soil). How far apart did you intend to set them apart?

Do you understand that visually, 1x1 is inadequate and disproportionate box for most of these? Jalapeño will look OK planted one each as you said. A collar of 1 ft cube is not a whole lot of advantage when all is said and done for a tomato or a cucumber plant... But more than none certainly.

I know, I sound discouraging, and I don't mean to. It sounds like you built the frames already, and they may still be useful if used to the plants' advantage for the right kind of plants.

There ARE some varieties of tomatoes that would look good in them, for instance, just can't see it for normal indeterminate varieties that can grow to 6-7 ft tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. Hm, do you plan on pruning to just one or two stems?