How to Fill Raised Garden Beds with Organic Soil

By Deanna Talerico updated Feb. 28th, 2025, published Mar. 22nd, 2019

Do you have new planter boxes that need filling? Read along and learn how to fill raised garden beds with quality organic soil that is well-balanced, nutrient-rich, and microbially-active to help your plants thrive. After all, soil health is KEY to the overall health and productivity of your garden! It’s something you want to “get right” from the start.

In this article I will share our raised bed soil recipe – with options for using bagged or bulk soil, compost, and our favorite organic fertilizers or other amendments. Learn how to calculate bed volume and soil needs, the importance of mulch, and explore the hugelkultur method to fill raised garden beds. Last but not least, I’ve included tips on how to improve existing soil if your garden beds are already full but underperforming.

Aaron stands next to a raised bed with a shovel, a Kubota UTV is backed up to the bed with its bed fully inverted to dump the bulk soil into the bed. — Filling the raised beds in our newer garden space – with the assistance of a UTV since we had 19 beds to fill! Most of the other photos you’ll see throughout this post are from our old garden, where we did everything by shovel and wheelbarrow.

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Getting Started with Raised Beds

Don’t miss our guide on how to build a durable DIY raised garden bed! The tutorial includes a step-by-step video and explores wood choices, bed sizing, location and layout best practices, tips for gopher-proofing beds, non-toxic sealer, and other ways to make wood raised beds last longer.

Don’t want to build your own? Check out the high-quality, long-lasting, galvanized metal Birdies raised beds from Epic Gardening – code “deannacat3” will save 5%! We love our Birdies too.

Once you have your beds in place, it’s time to fill ’em up.

A garden space in a front yard with a house beyond. A variety of vegetables are growing along with many perennials and agave growing in the ground. — Our old front yard garden

Investing in quality raised bed soil

Let’s set the record straight: “Dirt” is not soil! Soil is rich, full of nutrients, critters, microorganisms, and is biologically active! In contrast, dirt is usually devoid of all these things. Soil improves with time and age, as the soil food web blossoms. It is a living, breathing, dynamic ecosystem of its own.

No matter how much love, energy, or money you invest into your garden, if you have crummy soil, the result will be crummy plants. If you’ve gone through the effort to build or buy yourself some awesome raised garden beds, why skimp on the soil? However, the answer isn’t as simple as “go grab X brand of soil”. In my experience, not one soil is going to be perfect for growing vegetables on its own – bulk or bagged.

If you’re blessed with decent native soil, you can use some of that to fill your raised beds to offset cost (explored below).

A diagram by Heidelberg Farms showing what the Soil Food Web looks like below ground. There are tree roots with compost and micro arthropods on the soil surface, with bacteria and fungi, mycorrhizae, and nematodes and protozoa below the soil surface, in and around the tree roots. — The Soil Food Web. Image Courtesy of Heidelberg Farms via Pinterest

The Best Soil for Raised Beds

Confined to a large container, raised bed soil needs are unique and slightly different than in-ground gardens. The goal is to fill raised beds with soil that’s fertile, rich in organic matter, holds moisture, but also has good drainage and plenty of air pockets using a combination of quality organic soil (bagged and/or bulk), compost, and an aeration additive.

Our raised bed soil recipe

40% soil (topsoil, loam, native soil, etc)
40% well-aged compost
20% aeration (e.g. sand, lava fines, perlite, pumice, coco coir, peat moss, and/or rice hulls)
Other amendments such as worm castings and gentle, slow-release organic fertilizers

We’ll talk about each of these components in more detail below. Note that the ratios are approximate; they don’t need to be exact. Also note that the ratios will change if you primarily use bagged soil, which usually already includes compost and aeration (perlite) – such as 80% bagged potting soil and 20% compost.

Two hands cupping rich brown organic soil with a few red worms, hovering over a garden bed with leafy greens in the background below.

Calculating Soil Volume

Before soil shopping, you’ll need first to calculate the internal volume of your bed(s). Bags of soil come in measurements of cubic feet, usually in a range of 1 to 3 cubic-foot bags. Bulk soil purchased from a local landscape supply company will be in cubic yards.

To calculate how much soil you need to fill a raised garden bed, begin by determining the volume of your bed in cubic feet. To do this, simply multiply the width by length by depth in feet (For example: 4’ x 8’ x 1.5′ = 48 cubic feet).

Now you have your total cubic feet, and can figure out how much bagged soil it would take to fill the bed. If you’re using bulk soil or compost too, you’ll need to calculate volume in cubic yards. To convert to cubic yards, simply multiply cubic feet by 0.037037 (or use this converter). Given the example of a 4×8′ by 1.5-foot deep bed used above, 48 x 0.037037 = 1.7 cubic yards of soil is needed to fill it.

If math isn’t your strong suit (or you’re just feeling lazy…. no shame!) here is a raised bed soil calculator that will do it all for you, in both cubic feet or yards.

a young blonde woman sitting inside a large, deep, empty wooden raised garden bed frame sitting on a concrete patio, just built and not yet filled with soil — A new bed for the old backyard garden

40% SOIL

Using Bulk vs Bagged Soil (or compost)

If you calculated that you need several yards of soil to fill your raised garden beds, you are not going to want to rely on bagged soil alone. The cost will add up quick! Look up local landscape supply companies and see what they offer in bulk – either for delivery or for pick-up, if you have a truck.

On the other hand, if you need to fill only one or two modest raised beds, purchasing bagged soil could be the way to go.

We often get bulk soil and compost delivered from Central Coast Landscaping or Mier Brothers here on the California Central Coast.

Bulk Soil Options

Bulk soil quality, composition and type will vary depending on your location. In our area, we’ve found varying grades of bulk soil including basic topsoil or “fill”, some premium container blends (similar to bagged soil), and a middle-of-the-road “planters mix” that is 2 parts top soil, 1 part compost and 1 part soil conditioner.

The composition of bulk soil will influence how much/what else to mix with it. For instance, if you all you can find is basic fill or topsoil, then you’ll want to follow the full raised bed soil recipe of 40% topsoil, 40% compost and 20% aeration to create a nice well-balanced soil. Or, use mediocre bulk soil as a “filler” at the bottom of deep raised beds, with a better soil on top.

Yet if you’re able to find premium raised bed soil in bulk, then it likely already contains a good amount of compost and aeration (sand, perlite, etc) so you can therefore scale back on those component of the recipe respectively. The landscape supplier should be able to provide details of the ingredients and make-up of the soils they offer!

An image of two very large mounds of soil on a driveway, on top of a blue tarp. It was a delivery of several yards of bulk soil and organic compost. — Years ago, one of the only bulk soil options we had was this “planters mix” (described above) along with a chunky shredded green waste “compost” blend. It honestly wasn’t the best stuff, but helped take up a lot of bulk in the bottom of our beds. We added higher quality bagged materials too.

Deanna standing next to a huge pile of bulk performance blend soil. Beyond is a small pile of lava fines. — In the years since, we’ve found a higher quality bulk “performance blend” soil that we used in our newest raised beds – along with 25% compost and about 5% lava cinders by volume (shown in the background).

Bagged Soil Options

Even if we use good bulk soil to fill the majority of our raised beds, we always add at least a few bags of high-quality organic bagged soil near the top. We’ve used a wide variety of bagged soils over the years, but tend to prefer the selections offered at our local garden centers and nurseries over big box stores. “Hydro” grow shops (those geared towards hemp growers) usually have a great selection of premium soils too.

A few good options include E.B. Stone, Aurora/Roots Organics, Gardener & Bloom (G&B), Dr. Earth’s, and Fox Farms. Other cheaper or generic bagged soil can be used as filler towards the bottom of the bed, especially if you’re filling raised beds with bagged soil alone.

If possible, choose a few different types of bagged soil. Do not use “potting soil” only. It is light, fluffy, and will dry out quickly. In the photo below, you can see that we mix various types of bagged soil and conditioners. By combining a few different things, you’re getting a nice variety of composition and texture. Some are a little more woody, some more fluffy, some with perlite or pumice, some with or without added fertilizers.

A man filling an almost empty wood raised bed with bagged potting soil, holding and dumping in a bag. It is five foot by three feet, and 18 inches deep. Various bagged soils lay around the outside of it, waiting to be added. — For one small raised bed like this, it makes sense to use mostly bagged soil and compost instead of ordering bulk. We mixed several different types/brands of raised bed soil, potting mix, and soil conditioners (plus compost and lava fines).

40% COMPOST

Compost is organic matter that has been thoroughly broken down and decomposed into rich nutrient-dense plant food. It is a phenomenal soil conditioner, boosts the soil food web, and will make your garden shine!

We add plenty of homemade compost from our worm bin, larger compost piles, and aged/composted manure from our mini donkeys, but usually cannot make quite enough to meet all of our needs – especially for large projects like filling new raised garden beds with soil. So we do end up supplementing with organic bagged compost or bulk compost too.

Keep in mind that most bagged soils usually already have compost in them. So unless you’re using plain topsoil in your raised bed soil recipe, feel free to scale the “compost” ratio down to 10-30% (depending on the soil you’re using).

RELATED: See this guide to learn 6 ways to compost at home or this tutorial to learn how to build a DIY compost bin!

Deanna standing in front of one of the bays of a large 3 bay compost bin system. Two of the bays are partially full of donkey manure and leaves.

Compost Options

Many popular soil companies offer bagged compost products too. Again, these can be found at your local garden center or hydroponics grow shops. You should also be able to find compost locally in bulk, which is usually derived from green waste or possibly composted food waste. The bulk compost we purchase is made from local green waste and is OMRI-certified for organic gardening.

Our favorite bagged compost is Malibu Compost Biodynamic Blend. It is made from aged, composted cow manure from certified-organic, biodynamic dairy farms. However, please note that Bu’s compost is quite rich, so they recommend mixing only 25% of their compost to your soil blend.

Unfortunately, Bu’s is primarily available on the West Coast. If you live in the Northeast, Coast of Maine makes a similar product. I’m sure there are many more companies out there, all over the U.S. Leave a comment if you are aware of a good local product like this in your area!

A photo of a bag of compost, by Malibu Compost. It is sitting on the gravel, leaning up against a half-filled raised bed behind it. — We love Bu’s organic compost!

Worm Castings

Last but certainly not least, worm castings (aka worm poop!) are compost too. Worm castings are so good for your plants, they’re referred to as “black gold”. Worm castings offer gentle, slow-release fertilizer as well as improve soil structure, microbe activity, water retention, and drainage.

I highly recommend keeping a worm bin at home! It is a terrific way to divert food waste from the landfill, and up-cycle that “waste” into an incredibly valuable product for your garden or house plants. Worm bins are inexpensive and easy to maintain. Learn how to make a DIY worm bin here!

If you aren’t up for keeping your own worm bin, you could purchase finished worm castings and add at least a small mount to each bed. We can usually find bags of G&B Organics Worm Gro locally, or you could pick up some worm castings online here or from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm.

A hand holding a handful of rich looking soil, which is actually worm castings. A few red worms are in with the worm castings. In the background, there is a whole tub of worm castings, — A little tub of screened worm castings or “black gold” being added to the new raised bed, from our worm bin. As you can see, a few friends came along for the party!

20% AERATION

An aeration addition is also key to healthy, effective soil. This could include lava rock, pumice, or perlite. Coarse sand also promotes aeration and drainage, but not quite as effectively as the others.

A lot of bagged soil mixes already contain aeration additives, which also includes things like peat moss or rice hulls. So if you use primarily bagged soil, read the ingredient list and adjust accordingly. You can likely go lighter on additional aeration (e.g. perhaps only 5-10% extra, if any).

Benefits of Soil Aeration

All the beneficial organisms found in soil need air to survive, including microbes, nematodes, worms, protozoa, fungi, and more. Even more, plant roots need air to thrive too! Plants breathe through their roots just as much as they do through leaves. That’s why it’s important to not overwater, and always provide drainage holes in pots. Otherwise, plants will drown!

An aeration additive also helps the soil achieve a ideal moisture balance. They create air pockets, promote good drainage, and prevent the soil from over-compacting. At the same time, they also increase moisture retention by absorbing water like a sponge, which helps the soil stay evenly moist for a longer period of time between watering.

Our Choice: Lava Rock

For the aeration portion of our raised bed soil recipe, we have come to love volcanic rock. It is also called “lava cinders” and is frequently used in aquaponics. Use the small 3/8 inch to quarter-inch size, not larger chunks! Lava rock is full of pores, that not only promote aeration and drainage, but are also the perfect habitat for beneficial microbes to grow. They don’t float to the soil surface like white bits of perlite do, and are generally more affordable than pumice.

Our local landscape supply company carries volcanic rock both in bulk and in half cubic-foot bags. If you can’t find volcanic rock, use small perlite or pumice. Availability of all these products will vary depending on your location.

A hand holding small red lava rock pieces, that are being added to the new raised bed. — 3/8″ lava rock – added for aeration, drainage, moisture retention, and surface area for microbial life!

How to Fill a Raised Garden Bed

Now that you have our raised bed soil recipe, it is time to fill them up!

We prefer to fill our garden beds 100% full of soil and compost. Aside from sometimes adding lesser-quality bulk soil to the bottom of our deepest beds, there’s no other “fillers” at the bottom. See notes about fertilizer additions or using hugelkultur (adding leaves or sticks to the bottom of beds) in the sections to follow.

As you fill the beds, try to mix all of the various ingredients as evenly as possible. We’ll generally add them in “lasagna layers”, mixing as we go. For example, add several inches of bulk soil or bagged soil, a good layer of compost, a couple inches of volcanic rock, and mix. With that, the bed may only be about quarter full. Repeat with more layers of each, mix. Continue this process until the bed is full.

Also, it’s best to fill garden beds with soil all the way to the top – giving the roots as much depth to grow in as possible. When you first water a new bed it will compact and sink down a little too. Depending on how much it sinks, you may want to top it off with another layer of compost or soil.

An image of a newly built redwood raised bed, only about half full at this time. In the bed, there is a combination of soil and compost, with some red volcanic rock on top, about to be mixed and then continued to be filled. — In the past, we’d add alternating wheelbarrows or bags of soil to create a “lasagna layer” of soil, compost, and volcanic rock, mixing in the layers as we go until it’s full.

Deanna and Aaron mixing soil in a planter with the help from a Kubota UTV whose bed has been used to dump bulk soil into the planter. — When creating our new garden, we rented a skid steer (tractor bucket loader) to scoop up the bulk soil and compost from the main pile in the driveway, load it into the back of our UTV, then drove it to the raised bed area to dump into each bed. We pre-mixed the soil, compost, and lava rocks in the UTV first by loading the material in alternating scoops, and then mixed it further by shovel as it was added to the bed.

What About Hugelkultur?

When filling a deep raised garden bed with soil, you can offset some of the cost by adding small logs, branches, leaves, mulch, pine needles, or other natural woody organic matter to the very bottom of the bed, and then add at least a foot of good soil and compost on top. The woody debris eventually breaks down to feed the soil as a carbon source over time.

This practice is called Hugelkultur . Learn hugelkultur pros and cons, best practices and materials to use, and how to make a hugelkultur garden bed here.

However, I do not recommend adding non-organic matter such as rocks, plastic bottles, styrofoam, or other random materials to take up space in your bed. I also don’t recommend using hugelkultur in shallow raised garden beds that are less than 12 to 15 inches deep.

A wood planter halfway full of logs and tree branches.

Adding Fertilizer to New Raised Beds

Most “virgin” soil (especially plain topsoil) should be amended with natural fertilizer to keep plants healthy, happy, and productive!

We prefer to use well-balanced, gentle, slow-release organic fertilizer like this one, lightly sprinkled and scratched into the top of the soil a couple times per year. When filling new beds, we also like to add a little Azomite rock dust for important trace minerals, which offer a vast array of benefits for plant growth!

If you fill raised garden beds primarily with high-quality organic bagged soils and compost, you can go pretty light on the fertilizer for the first growing season since the bags often contain amendments already. I always suggest using less than the manufacturer’s instructions in general. You don’t want to accidentally “burn” the plants!

On the other hand, if you started with mostly bulk soil and compost from a local landscape company, you’ll most definitely want to add fertilizer from the start. (That is, unless they say that it’s already amended, but I don’t think that’s common practice for most bulk material.)

Plants use up nutrients in the soil as they grow, so you’ll also want to implement a regular fertilizer routine for your raised garden beds going forward. In addition to adding slow-release fertilizer, we top off our raised beds with fresh compost and water with compost tea a couple times per year.

Sprinkling in a combination of kelp, alfalfa and neem meals to the top of the soil once the raised bed is full. This will be scratched into the top few inches of the soil, and watered in. We also added some rock dust here, and earlier when the bed was only half-full. — Sprinkling in a combination of slow-release fertilizer and rock dust to the top of the soil once the raised bed is full. This will be scratched into the top few inches of the soil, and thoroughly watered in.

The Importance of Mulch

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to cover the soil with a couple inches of mulch. Mulch protects and improves raised bed soil by reducing evaporation, suppressing weeds, and buffering the soil (and plant roots) from temperature swings. We typically use a woody compost as mulch. Learn more about mulching best practices and pros and cons of 8 popular mulch options here, including bark or wood chips, straw, compost, and more.

A number of wood raised garden beds are shown, each planted out with various young seedlings and topped with woody compost mulch. There are various perennial flowering plants in the background along with cacti, vines, shrubs, and trees.

How to Improve Existing Raised Bed Soil

Do you have raised beds that are already full of soil that might not be the best quality, is having drainage issues, or the plants don’t seem to be growing very well? Don’t worry, it’s happened to us before too. But don’t feel the need to go dig out all your soil and start over. There is hope!

Before you consider replacing your raised bed soil, try amending it first using some of the materials we’ve discussed already, including compost, fertilizer, and more.

If your plants are sad and small, have you been fertilizing them adequately? Is your soil too compact? Try to loosen it up and mix in some aeration additions. Does it seem like the soil drains too quickly, or dries out too quickly? Add compost and worm castings! That, along with watering with aerated compost tea, will increase the microbial life in your soil. For better moisture retention, drainage, and “fluff”, peat moss or coco coir could also be mixed in. Note that coco coir is the more sustainable option of the two.

First, try those measures for a season and see if there is noticeable improvement. I really think there should be. If not? Next, consider taking out at least a portion of the old soil and replacing with the types of things discussed in this post.

The final raised garden bed for this example, now completely full of soil, compost, and aeration additions. It is being watered, with drips of water running down the side of the bed, and a rainbow has appeared in the water spray. — The final full bed. Make sure to give it some water to get everything happy, and to get those microbes kicking!

And that’s how we fill new raised garden beds with soil.

I hope that was helpful! If so, please consider leaving a review or comment below – and feel free to ask any questions! Now it’s time to put your new garden beds to good use. Don’t miss our guide on starting seeds indoors, tips for transplanting seedlings outside, or the best easy companion flowers to grow for pollinators!

You may also like:

Many newly built wood raised beds that are freshly filled with soil.

How to Fill Raised Garden Beds with Organic Soil

Come learn how to fill a raised garden bed or planter box with quality organic soil to help your plants thrive. You can follow our raised bed soil recipe using bagged or bulk soil, compost, natural amendments or fertilizer, and more.

5 from 4 votes

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Cook Time 1

Ingredients

40% soil (topsoil, loam, native soil, etc)
40% well-aged compost
20% aeration addition (e.g. sand, lava fines, perlite, pumice, coco coir, peat moss, and/or rice hulls) to improve texture, drainage, and moisture retention
other amendments such as worm castings, rock dust, and gentle, slow-release organic fertilizers

Instructions

General Info

Note that the soil recipe is approximate and flexible, depending on the type of base soil you use. For example, quality bagged soils usually already contain some compost and aeration additives, so you're using mostly bagged soil, you may only need about half the called-for compost and aeration.
To fill just one or two modest raised beds, using bagged soil and compost alone may work. Yet if you're filling several raised beds, look into getting bulk soil/compost delivered from a local landscape supply company. It will be far more cost effective!
If using mostly bagged products, do not use "potting soil" alone. Choose a mix of a few different types/brands of potting mixes, raised bed soil, and soil conditioners along with some added compost. See main post for more details and brand recommendations.

Calculating Bed Size and Soil Volume

To calculate how much soil you need to fill a raised garden bed, begin by determining the volume of your bed in cubic feet. To do this, simply multiply the width by length by depth in feet (For example: 4’ x 8’ x 1.5′ = 48 cubic feet). Bagged soil usually comes in cubic feet.
If you’re using bulk soil or compost too, you’ll need to calculate volume in cubic yards. To convert to cubic yards, multiply cubic feet by 0.037037 (or use this converter). Given the example of a 4×8′ by 1.5-foot deep bed used above, 48 x 0.037037 = 1.7 cubic yards of soil is needed to fill it.

How to Fill a Raised Bed

Add the soil, compost, and aeration addition of choice in layers and mix as you go, so all of the ingredients and final soil will be as evenly mixed as possible. We also like to add worm castings mixed into the top 6 inches of the bed.
For smaller projects, we simply used wheelbarrow and shovels. For larger projects, we used a skid steer to load into a UTV to dump into each bed.
It's best to fill garden beds with soil all the way to the top – giving the roots as much depth to grow in as possible. When you first water a new bed it will compact and sink down a little too. Depending on how much it sinks, you may want to top it off with another layer of compost or soil.
For extra-deep beds (over 18" tall) you can offset some of the cost by adding small logs, branches, leaves, mulch, pine needles, or other natural woody organic matter to the very bottom of the bed, and then add at least a foot of good soil and compost on top. I don't recommend this method (hugelkultur) for shallower beds.
After filling the bed, sprinkle on some well-balanced, slow-release organic fertilizer and azomite rock dust (recommended) over the top, lightly scratch it into the soil surface, and then water the bed well.
Don’t forget to cover the soil with a couple inches of mulch. Mulch protects and improves raised bed soil by reducing evaporation, suppressing weeds, and buffering the soil (and plant roots) from temperature swings. We typically use a woody compost as mulch, though straw and leaves are also popular options.

Keyword fill planter box, fill raised garden bed, raised bed soil

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

DeannaCats signature, with "Keep on Growing"

140 Comments

Lois

April 6, 2021 at 4:20 pm Reply

I am going to be using a pre-existing raised bed that has not been used for growing organically. It has a small amount of soil in it which I am going to remove and start over. Is there anything else that I should do to the box to make it organically safe? I’m pretty sure that the previous person used fertilizers and perhaps pesticides that are not organic. I hope this makes since. Thank you in advance for your help.
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  April 6, 2021 at 4:24 pm Reply
  
  Hello Lois, I think everything will be safe enough and I wouldn’t be too worried about it since you will be starting over from scratch. Good luck and happy gardening!
Deanna Nelson

March 30, 2021 at 1:51 pm Reply

Help! I am confused. I plan on getting some bulk soil. I need 4.72 cubic yards total of soil and this says not to rely on bulk soil alone so how much bagged stuff would I buy for the 40% bulk soil and bagged soil (20% of each?)

Thank you!!!
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 30, 2021 at 4:30 pm Reply
  
  Hello Deanna, looks like you have quite the project on your hands! If you did the calculations on your raised beds or container sizes and they can hold 4.72 cubic yards of total volume, I would opt for at least 2.5 cubic yards of bulk and or bagged soil. That is equal to 67.5 cubic feet total, most bagged soil comes in 2 or 3 cubic foot bags so you would just scale up or down from there depending on how much bulk soil you get. If you have quality bulk compost and or bulk soil available to you, you could use more of those and less of bagged soil to off set some of the up front cost. Our local landscape supply companies don’t have the best soil so we have to rely on some bagged material as well. If you don’t have much aeration material available to you, it will be more important to mix in some potting soil (which typically have perlite or pumice) to help with some aeration as some bulk soil (like the ones available to use) don’t contain much in the mix besides dirt and wood. Hope that helps and let me know if you need any more clarification or have more questions. Thanks and good luck!
Laci

March 22, 2021 at 9:51 am Reply

You are SO amazing & knowledgeable! You always provide such detailed & valuable information! It is a bit overwhelming to try & get it right…..each year brings new challenges for myself. But maybe someday I will get it all together. In the meantime, thank you for what you do (& your husband) & all of the hard work you do to put all of this information together & share it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 22, 2021 at 2:30 pm Reply
  
  Thank you so much Laci and don’t worry, we are still trying to get it all together ourselves. It’s about learning from your experiences and enjoying what you do. Thanks for reading and being a part of this community, we will see you around!
- Deanna Nelson
  
  March 31, 2021 at 7:52 am Reply
  
  Thank you for the response! I am not sure on the quality of the soil around here (I am inWi). I called a guy and he said it is shredded (he said its smooth with sand added). I definitely want to substitute with some bagged stuff so maybe shoot for getting 1.5 yards of that soil for filler and then the rest bagged.
  - Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
    
    March 31, 2021 at 2:32 pm Reply
    
    That sounds like a good idea, you can always continue to “grow” your soil through the use of compost tea, cover crops, and mulch to make an active and microbial rich environment in time. Good luck!
Brendan

March 21, 2021 at 6:21 pm Reply

Very informative on a number of levels, thank you for sharing your wisdom! I knew volcanic rock was good for retaining moisture, but hadn’t known about the aeration factor.
Lizzie

March 21, 2021 at 12:14 pm Reply

When you say you like to use a woody compost material, are you referring to Harvest Supreme as your final layer? Or, are you using it to mix in as part of the whole bed soil. I have found it to be quite woody. I use Harvest Supreme as my final layer for that “woody compost” you refer to. But, I know those lil buddy microbes love that wood. Yes I overthink everything. Thank you both.
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 22, 2021 at 2:43 pm Reply
  
  Hello Lizzie, we have used Harvest Supreme as part of our soil mixture as well as using it as mulch. We mostly use the Soil Building Conditioner from Gardner and Bloome as our mulch layer. Any woody material in your soil will be broken down with time into rich organic matter. Let us know if you have any other questions and happy gardening!
Julie

March 14, 2021 at 8:52 am Reply

I’m in chicago, so to keep my beds protected over winter this year I added a layer of chemical free hay I bought at the garden center. Now that spring is here I want to refresh my beds with compost and fertilizer and mix it lightly with the old soil. Do I remove the hay or add the compost on top? I know they say not to turn the soil up too much so I didn’t think I should mix it in? Thanks for any advice!
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 15, 2021 at 2:43 pm Reply
  
  Hello Julie, it really depends on how much hay is in your beds and if you want to use the hay as a mulch layer for your growing season. If there is less than a inch or so of hay you can most likely add compost and amendments on top of it and lightly mix it into the top layer of the soil. The other option is to remove the hay, add your compost and amendments into the top layer of the bed, and then add your hay back on top of the soil to be used as mulch. There is nothing to be worried about as far as hay mixing into the soil, it is a carbon source and will be broken down into organic matter in time which will feed your soil and the plants that are growing in it. Hope that helps and have fun gardening!
Karen

March 13, 2021 at 1:57 pm Reply

I have a cedar planting box on legs—6 feet long—and plan to plant vegetables. I’m a newbie—how many drainage holes do I need? Should I put anything on the bottom of the box prior to filling? Thanks.
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 13, 2021 at 3:03 pm Reply
  
  Hello Karen, how wide is your planter box and what is the bottom of the bed made of? Is it one large piece of wood or are there a couple boards coming together to make up the bottom? Usually seams in wood, especially on the bottom of a bed will result in some drainage already. I would use 1/4″ to 1/2″ drill bit and drill a hole at least every two square foot of planter box. If your box is 12 square feet then at least 6 drainage holes would be recommended. I would lay down a sheet of landscape fabric on the bottom so the drainage holes don’t get clogged with soil and add a 1 to 2 inch layer of gravel to the bottom to promote even more drainage before filling the rest of the box with soil. If the planter box is raised off the ground enough so it can still be accessed from the bottom, you can always add more drainage holes later if the planter box isn’t draining well enough. Hope that helps and good luck!
Kimberley

March 7, 2021 at 10:01 am Reply

This will be my first year trying to grow vegetables in a long time and my first time trying to keep everything organic. My newly built cedar bed is 8′ X 4′ X 10″ (.83′). If I did the math correctly, I will need approximately 27 cu feet of soil. If I am buying Kellogg’s All Natural Raised Bed and Potting Mix Premium Outdoor Container Mix is that all I need? or am I still supposed to mix in compost and aeration material? The bag for the soil says no mixing needed. I wasn’t sure if that was really the case or if i still needed to be concerned with the other components.
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 8, 2021 at 2:07 pm Reply
  
  Hello Kimberely, it’s great to hear that you are giving gardening a chance once again. Your soil selections sound great, you don’t need to add any extra aeration materials. However, I would suggest finding a good compost to add to your raised bed, even if it is only 2 to 3 cubic feet worth added into the top 1/4 portion of the soil. Depending on where you live and what is available to you, Malibu’s Compost (West Coast), Oly Mountain Fish Compost (PNW), or Coast of Maine Compost (East Coast) are all fairly large companies whose products can be fairly easily found. You could also check locally to see if there is a company near you who specializes in vermicomposting who may have worm castings available to use as your compost portion. And finally, don’t forget about mulching your garden bed once you have filled it full of soil, we like using a woody type compost material. Hope that helps and good luck! Let us know if you have any other questions.
Shirley

March 2, 2021 at 1:28 pm Reply

When do the worms get added? On top? Mid-layer?
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  March 2, 2021 at 2:21 pm Reply
  
  We usually just add them once we fill the bed to the top with soil and after a thorough water. Lightly burying the worms is enough as they usually work their way into the soil rather quickly.
- Kay
  
  March 24, 2021 at 7:23 pm Reply
  
  Thanks for a great post! I’m building sub-irrigated beds (self-watering). Would you still add worms in there? Should I assume they wouldn’t survive the northeastern winter?
  - Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
    
    March 25, 2021 at 2:26 pm Reply
    
    Hello Kay, it’s really up to you if you would like to add worms or not. Even only 2 or 3 worms per bed will repopulate themselves quite easily. If the worms can’t burrow deep enough to survive the freezing weather, the cocoons that they lay can overwinter and will emerge once the weather warms. Good luck and let us know how your sub irrigated beds work out for you.
Brittney

January 25, 2021 at 4:15 pm Reply

Thank you for all of the information! I have also seen quite a bit about adding cardboard to the bottom layer of a raised bed. Would you make this addition to all of your recommendations, replace one of your mentioned layers with the cardboard, or not use at all? I am completely new to the gardening world and have been quite overwhelmed by all of the information! Thank you in advance for your reply!!
- Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
  
  January 26, 2021 at 2:13 pm Reply
  
  Hello Brittney, I would opt to use either cardboard or commercial grade weed blocking fabric but using both is unnecessary. It just depends on how many invasive weeds there are around your garden area and if there is a concern on weeds or grass growing up into your beds from below. The cardboard helps for less invasive grass and weeds but it won’t hold up for long before it breaks down into organic matter. Hope that helps and good luck! Let us know if you have any other questions.