We got the three raised beds placed in the yard, all sealed with raw linseed oil and filled with a mix of top soil and mushroom soil. Not sure if mixing the two soils is a bad idea, don’t see why it would be, but we’ll see what happens. You can also use your own composted soil, if you have it.
I removed the top couple inches of soil underneath each bed and roughed it up, but didn’t lay down any corrugated or cardboard or newspaper before adding the soil mix– mainly because we had just taken everything to recycling. Hope this doesn’t come back to haunt us.
I divvied up one of those big rectangular containers of peat moss between the three, and also a smaller bag of vermiculite. The recipe I saw online was 1/3-1/3-1/3 soil, peat moss, and vermiculite (or Perlite), well mixed. I think we went a bit heavy on the soil, so I’ll probably get a bit more peat moss and another bag of vermiculite and add those in today.
Anyway, they’ll soon be ready to use for veggies, herbs, maybe a bit of more decorative flora. Just have to keep wandering cats out of ‘em, along with the rabbits, who seem to like young string bean seedlings, among other things.
Looking forward to some fresh, homegrown produce.
Update: our raised bed soil mix is a real potpouri now. I’ve since added a bag of composted soil, another bag of vermiculite, a bag of perlite, three bags of humus and manure, and a bag of pine bark nuggets. Not sure anymore what kind of growing medium we’ll have, or if the whole mixture will eventually ignite or harden like cement. Will keep you posted.
3 Cents' 