Filling a metal raised bed with good soil can make a big difference in the success of garden plants. Gardener Scott shows how he uses layers of different organic materials to fill a metal raised bed from Forever Garden Beds. (Video #450)
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23 Comments
I do hope Mala found what she was looking for. Could you send her south for a few weeks. She could help root around and mix up all my container soil.
I have bags and buckets of different soils sitting right in front of me waiting to get mixed up for the containers I plan to transplant in.
Have been staring at them for about an hour (while doing other things) , then I check what's new on yt, and here is this video. Excellent timing.
💞 🐕 💞
Great information. Thank you! This is my first year growing in my Birdies raised beds and I can't wait to see how the plants grow in them.
Last fall I put a metal raised bed just like this together, layering with branches, brush, garden waste, and food scraps on the bottom, then old potting soil, new raised bed mix, and mushroom compost, with a sprinkling of alfalfa pellets for nitrogen. I kept shade cloth on to keep it covered through winter. This spring, I topped it off with a mix of raised bed soil, muhshroom compost, and peat moss before direct seeding cool weather crops (radishes, beets, careots, and onions). When the plants get a little bigger, I'll add my mulch.
My neighbor had some free sheet metal he was going to gift me to make one, but when he priced out the lumber, it was actually cheaper to buy the new metal bed, and it will last far longer. Absolutely love this metal raised bed!
I'm sure this works, but it sure does seem complicated. I still grow most stuff in ground, and have been improving the soil there, but I do have a few "raised beds"–really compost piles for woody material with some growing medium on top. I don't use expensive metal raised beds. Largely because I have tolerable soil in ground, I don't consider a raised bed worthwhile unless it spares my back (in other words, it's waist high), so there's a lot of room in there for woody material. I use a layer of grass clippings to ensure the growing medium doesn't immediately drop to the bottom of the pile and I accept that there will be a fair amount of settling. Mostly I have been using "any old soil" for the top several inches and making a point of growing inoculated legumes in the bed for the first season so I don't have to fertilize heavily.
I am glad you emphasized adding native soil to the bed. Soil test only give you values of available nutrients, it is the soil life that will break down that native soil to feed your plants'
When I started gardening 3 years ago, I knew nothing about soil biology, I do now. Unfortunately I filled my beds with expensive garbage, now I am reintroducing native soil into my beds, live and learn.
Great video!!! Stay Well!!!
I love the good helper you have! such a cute dog.
Hot digity dog!
Scott have you seen Gary’s best soil? He’s a proponent of sand based soil. And only compost on top. I’ve never had issues with using a lot of compost but was interested to see if you knew anything about sand based soil.
Thanks for another great video. Maybe you can answer a question I have. My son has celiac disease. Ive been looking for mulch ideas and liked the idea of straw. While at Good Earth in Colo springs the other day I noticed their straw bales had a sign that read "wheat and barley straw"
That got me thinking… maybe mulching with wheat would be dangerous for my son, as the plants will touch the mulch while they grow. Am i just being a paranoid mom, or pick a different mulch solution?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Cathy
Excellent teaching Scott, I love filling these beds. I find in a few years I need to top them off as the wood down at the bottom breaks down and collapses.
Your native soil will have a great abundance of minerals, and that's where we get flavor and healthy veggies according to Steve Solomon.
😂😂😂Mala was so funny 🐕. She was digging in to help for sure🤣😂🤣
That’s going to be a fantastic home for lots of veggies.
So much goodness for them.
Can’t wait to see which tomatoes are going in there.
Thanks for covering some very important points in this video. Made the mistake of not making the new bed sit idle for a couple of months to bake after layering, but ended up planting immediately. The bed did not do so well and the plants struggled. Using old or aged compost is also probably not such a good idea when kicking things off on a new bed, semi aged compost that is still teaming with organisms and half decomposed biomass might work better.
Much too complicated
Great information and very helpful explanation. Thank you!
Thank you! Also use dry branches. I used cutting from raspberries, which were not dry yes. Now raspberryplants are starting to apear…….
Awe man! I wish I would would have this information back when we made our raised beds! Your videos are most informative! And now i realize I've made some mistakes.
Moving forward, I could use a little advice, please. I have wooden raised beds that i filled 10 years ago abd I haven't done anything to feed the soil since. The soil is tired.
Orinally the beds were filled with organic potting soil, Dr Earth organic Veg Garden Mix, coir, crushed lava rock, SuperCar, rock dust, Bountea Humisoil, and existing garden soil (native clay, old cow manure, sand). Ive been locking for organic mulch options that fit the budget but unfortunatly the beds have suffered some bare-soil years. Last year i started using straw. I like your chop and drop method and i like the idea of no dig.
I bought organic Miracle-Gro Raised Bed soil that was on clearance late last fall but didn’t put it down. I'm thinking of scootching last year's hay aside, along with the this springs chop and drop material, putting down the new bed soil and some worm castings, then a layer of compost and topped off with the hay and stuff that i scootched aside. A concern i have is that i won't have time to let this cake bake before the seedlings growing in the basement will need to be planted. So…. should i wait until this fall to add the new soil, and garden another season with my tired soil? Or should i go for it and add the new soil on now?
Apologies for the lengthy question. I will buy one of your shirts.
Who needs a tiller when you've got a dig-ity dog lol 😂
what if you have grass cuttings that have been fertizered/sterilized of weeds? where can I store that and grow something with the compost? Love this channel!!!!
Thank You for going into detail about this. Looks like your tomatoes will be very happy.
Does anyone feel that Gardener Scott is the Bob Ross of gardening? Love him!
4:19 Mala! What a genious little cutie girl, giving daddy a hand, helping him!