I'm planning to make 2 beds.
Can anyone advise what kind of soil or durt should I use to fill it to rais it around 4". Pls advise something which is not to expensive.
Do anyone know what is Bark Dust/Soil and is it good for beds.
I built a raised bed out of 2x12's and bought a couple cubic yards of what one company in Kenner called garden soil. It was not near as nice as I'd liked and was very lacking in nutrients. I've added lots of compost to it over the past couple years and it is fine now, especially since some of the larger pieces of material in the original stuff have degraded.Freind wrote:I'm planning to make 2 beds.
Can anyone advise what kind of soil or durt should I use to fill it to rais it around 4". Pls advise something which is not to expensive.
Do anyone know what is Bark Dust/Soil and is it good for beds.
One year when I lived in N.O. East I went out to Michoud Blvd. and into the woods with about 20 large construction bags and dug up some of that black soil they have out there. That stuff is so black it looks like coffee grounds, but it turned out to be full of Root Knot Nematodes which will destroy a vegetable garden in the warmer months when they are more active.
If I had to do it again I'd probably call one of the pool companies in the area and ask if they have a project about to begin and see if you can get some of the soil they need to remove to put in an in-ground pool. The top foot or so would be best if you could manage it. Under that is likely going to be nothing but clay in most areas.
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rainbowgardener
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[quote="gumbo2176"][/quote]
Several years ago I tried this co., Garden Soil, for my front flower bed and I'm not too impress. They are high in price and I was assuming that their quality would be better but it not. 2nd they are using the small bob cat scoop for measuring. It didn't even filled 1/2 of my truck. Next time I'm going to try the co. called Reliable Soil by the river in Kenner. I don't know abot the quality but their scoop size is big and they are also little bit cheaper.
By the way the new bed is for my other home in Alexandria, LA. Its a small town and its very hard to find the venders here.
Several years ago I tried this co., Garden Soil, for my front flower bed and I'm not too impress. They are high in price and I was assuming that their quality would be better but it not. 2nd they are using the small bob cat scoop for measuring. It didn't even filled 1/2 of my truck. Next time I'm going to try the co. called Reliable Soil by the river in Kenner. I don't know abot the quality but their scoop size is big and they are also little bit cheaper.
By the way the new bed is for my other home in Alexandria, LA. Its a small town and its very hard to find the venders here.
Freind wrote:Several years ago I tried this co., Garden Soil, for my front flower bed and I'm not too impress. They are high in price and I was assuming that their quality would be better but it not. 2nd they are using the small bob cat scoop for measuring. It didn't even filled 1/2 of my truck. Next time I'm going to try the co. called Reliable Soil by the river in Kenner. I don't know abot the quality but their scoop size is big and they are also little bit cheaper.gumbo2176 wrote:
By the way the new bed is for my other home in Alexandria, LA. Its a small town and its very hard to find the venders here.
I've spent quite few days in Alex. My now deceased father-in-law needed to go there for Chemo and radiation treatments when he had cancer. He lived in Marksville and I'd drive up and spend time with him while he recovered from the treatments if he got worn down. At his age, early 80's, when battling lung cancer, he got worn down pretty quick.
Reliable is the company in Kenner I got the soil for my raised bed from. They do sell a nice load for the price, especially if you pick up, but it was lacking in nutrients. My suggestion, if you still get it, is to send some to the Ag. Center in Alex run by LSU for testing to see what it needs and add it before planting.
Get some river sand and mix it with some of your top soil!. Put a base of leaves or any compost material about a foot under the raised bed even shreeded paper! I usually look around for pine trees and take several inches of top soil from under it needles and all and put it under several inches of the top soil in your raised bed . I like to strat the top 4 inches of the raised bed with strained soil!! Also take several inches of soil from any area of good ground and use the under dirt in your raised bed top few inches!
One of the best places to get decent topsoil is a new neighborhood. The first thing people do here is put up walls. They are usually glad to have someone haul off the extra soil.
When the homes are constructed the land is either filled or scraped to level the lots. At the end the developer usually trucks in some topsoil to cover the soil that was compacted by the construction. The soil from the new homes are nutrient poor and contain some topsoil and subsoil, but usually there aren't that many weed seeds or disease present.
The best topsoil would come from a forest, meadow, or riverbed. But I don't know if you can get any of that in quantity legally.
Where ever you get your soil from, try to get a test done first. It might be worth testing for nematodes if that is a problem.
Here, it does not matter. Nematodes are everywhere. They can be limited by soil replacement, solarization, planting susceptible plants in pots raised off the ground, soil fumigation, adding lots of organic matter, planting certain French marigolds, sun hemp, India mustard, and rotating non-susceptible, and nematode resistant with susceptible crops. Make sure that you clean tools, boots, yourself, and don't move soil around in areas you know have nematodes.
When the homes are constructed the land is either filled or scraped to level the lots. At the end the developer usually trucks in some topsoil to cover the soil that was compacted by the construction. The soil from the new homes are nutrient poor and contain some topsoil and subsoil, but usually there aren't that many weed seeds or disease present.
The best topsoil would come from a forest, meadow, or riverbed. But I don't know if you can get any of that in quantity legally.
Where ever you get your soil from, try to get a test done first. It might be worth testing for nematodes if that is a problem.
Here, it does not matter. Nematodes are everywhere. They can be limited by soil replacement, solarization, planting susceptible plants in pots raised off the ground, soil fumigation, adding lots of organic matter, planting certain French marigolds, sun hemp, India mustard, and rotating non-susceptible, and nematode resistant with susceptible crops. Make sure that you clean tools, boots, yourself, and don't move soil around in areas you know have nematodes.
One of my best purchased of top soil was a 1/2 square yard of mushroom manure wih a 1/2 yad shovel of strained top soil on top. I unloaded this mix and it was perfect! I am getting a load of the same thing in about another month!. This mix strained also worked great for starting some seeds! for raised beds it is excellent and cheap at $25 a square yard!
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DoubleDogFarm
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