What soil for filling a raised garden bed?

[Gee]

I will be planting in raised garden beds early next year.

Can you tell me what sort of soil I should buy to fill these beds?

[Jason]

Thanks for joining the discussion and sharing your experience @Malcolm. It's great to have you as a new member of the Workshop community. It sounds as if you have lots of knowledge and experience that you can share with our members. I trust that other community members will also inspire and inform your projects too. Please feel free to post whenever you need a hand.

Welcome aboard,

Jason

[Maursie]

 Raised wicking bedRaised garden bed, seedlings

First up place some gravel, rocks, flattened  old cardboard boxes, newspaper and pea straw in the bottom, this will keep weeds at bay and invite the worms to come and visit.  You may also like to place a Composting worm farm in the corner of your garden.  Then get some good top soil or potting mix, I used Organic Potting mix, sprinkle a slow release fertilizer pellet. Then decide what you are going to grow and go for it.  

For your information zucchini, snow peas and cucumber may be grown in raised beds with the assistance of veggie trellis, ease of harvesting.

Enjoy, have fun. @Maursie 

[kirky]

@Adam_W Hi Adam, very old post sorry but i came across it searching for the best soil to put in my newly built planter boxes. Very good video, but I noticed there was no black plastic or core flute around the sides of the box? Is this not needed?

[Jason]

Hi @kirky,

Good to see you joining in the discussion. Never apologise for reviving an older discussion - we're here to help.

Have you see the excellent guide How to fill a raised garden bed by @Noelle? 

Jason

[kirky]

Thank you! But still didnt mention if i need to wrap the inside with bag plastic or core flute as it says on the Bunnings instructions of how to build the bed - any ides?

[EricL]

Hello @kirky

Placing the black plastic on the inside of a steel garden bed helps with regulating the temperature of the soil. Since the soil in a raised bed is elevated above the ground, it will gain or lose heat faster than soil in the ground. I recommend putting the plastic on as it provides a benefit to your garden bed. I suggest using the GRUNT 2m x 5m Black 100um Builder's Film Handy Roll. If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Please keep us updated, any photos of your garden bed up and running would be much appreciated.

Eric

[kirky]

Thanks @EricL, this is where we are at so far! Will post again when completed  

[JAPCAP]

Looks fantastic! Do you build these for others by any chance?? More than a bit beyond my skill set 🤣

[EricL]

Hello @JAPCAP

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your question about the raised garden bed.

Let me tag @Gee so that they are made aware of your kind comments and question. You can always go for a Bedford 120 x 120 x 30cm ACQ Treated Pine Raised Garden Bed. This is a pre-cut ready to assemble raised garden bed. There is also the Saxon Raised Garden Bed 120X90X30cm Black which is quick and easy to assemble. Whichever you decide to go with, please make sure to post and share your project. Any updates you can provide would be much appreciated.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Jason]

Hi @JAPCAP,

Let me extend my own personal welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. We're so pleased to have you join us.

I believe you were responding to @Adam_W's post in this discussion and referring to his excellent raised garden bed with seat. Adam has actually shared a comprehensive step-by-step guide to building your own. We would be more than happy to assist you with completing this project. Alternatively, you could engage the services of a tradesperson to build it for you via a website such as Hipages or Airtasker. Or you might like to consider a simpler project. Adam's How to build a simple raised garden bed would be a great alternative. 

Let us know how we can assist with next steps for making your raised garden bed project a reality. We're here to help.

Jason