What soild should I use? please

lilianapuccini

Hello, I have just made a raised bed in my garden is only 300mm deep, it is 4500mm long and 600mm wide, we mainly want to plant flowers here but we now want a bit of this raised bed to have some fruit, vegetables or herbs that we can grow up with our daughter, at the moment the raised bed is one long thing, do you think is better is I divide the space where I will be growing vegs, fruits or herbs to the one for flowers? with like proper timber? and different combination of soils?

I live in Dorking and I we don't have any soil left from our garden so we will need to buy some soil, what would be the best combination of soil that we can use for both options? please. The existing soil where the raised bed is now, is very wet and muddy type of thing, we were thinking to add a weed control membrane and the soil on top but I wonder if this is the best option we have? do we add pebbles for like good drainage? sorry, this is the first time we work in a garden and are a bit unsure of what is the best thing to do so any advice is very much appreciate. 

thank you, 

Liliana 

Liriodendron

Hi Liliana - welcome to the forum!  

It's a bit difficult to imagine your raised bed...  is there a possibility you could take a photo and post it for us tomorrow so we can advise you better?  You click the rectangular icon with the little picture in it and follow the instructions for posting pictures.

lilianapuccini

Hi, thank you very much for your response, I have a picture of how it is now. the garden is south facing, I will have the fruit or vegetables on the left hand side and some flowers at the end close to the wall. Thank you very much again. 

Fairygirl

Hi @lilianapuccini. That will be a great space for all sorts of things. It can be very useful to divide up the space if you want to grow plants with different requirements, so that's definitely worth doing.
You can use any timber, but it's also worth lining it, and the entire raised bed. If you have old compost bags or similar, you can staple them on. It just helps prevent deterioration, and aids moisture retention, which can often be a problem with a raised bed, especially if it's in a sunnier spot. You could also use paving slabs if you had them. I lined all my timber raised beds.


A general mix of topsoil, rotted manure and some compost will give you a good medium for growing most things. You can then tinker with the separate sections if you decide to do those. For anything needing heftier conditions, you can have more soil/manure in the mix, and for plants which like a freer draining mix, you can add grit, and/or more compost.
Just be aware that the soil level will drop, so you'll have to top it up. Now is a good time to fill it, so that the weather will help settle it quickly and you can then add more

Hostafan1

Hi, I've built some very similar planters , using very similar timber. 
Can I suggest you use "week membrane"  stapled to the inside the of the timber. I found the timber, being relatively thin, can shrink when it's hot and dry and soil/ water can escape between them.
The membrane stops that happening.

Fairygirl

You must have better eyesight than me @Hostafan1. I thought it was built with sleepers 

Hostafan1

Fairygirl said:

You must have better eyesight than me @Hostafan1. I thought it was built with sleepers 

OOPS! I was looking at the photo in YOUR post. Soz!!

Fairygirl

Hostafan said :  OOPS! I was looking at the photo in YOUR post. Soz!!

'LOL' as the young folk say...... 
You'd better get down Specsavers.....

koyukano

lilianapuccini said:

Hello, I have just made a raised bed in my garden is only 300mm deep, it is 4500mm long and 600mm wide.

what would be the best combination of soil that we can use for both options? please. 

I too would be interested in what vegetables can be grown in this as I have also just built a raised bed and the height of these are similar and I built these on top of a pre-existing weed membrame with gravel on top for drainage. 

From what I gathered from what I read, if you were to fill it with all compost this would not provide lasting nutrients for longer than a couple of years, I have bought 2 tonnes of top soil for mine and I will buy some compost and add a 5cm layer of compost on top of the top soil. I'm not very experienced with gardening but from what I have read this approach should be reasonable but I'm sure someone with more experience can offer better advice. 

Fairygirl

Yes - compost alone is no use. It's fine for a seasonal pot, as it only has enough  nutrients for a few months growing, but it doesn't have enough sustenance for shrubs/trees or most veg. 
It's also important to understand what the veg you want to grow likes, in terms of sun/shade, drainage, feeding etc. 
As I said  initially, a mix of soil, manure and some compost will suit a wide variety of planting. Grit is also useful, depending on the planting. I'm not a fan of the 'layer of gravel at the bottom' method as it can act like a sump. It's always better to mix grit/gravel into the soil mix.
Divisions of the bed will allow more scope, depending on the amount of sun/shade available. 

lilianapuccini

Thank you very much for your reply. I need to order the soil then, do you think if I work in the bases that I need 20cm of top soil, 5 cm of compost and 5cm of manure would be okay?
Thank you again