refurbishing children\'s raised vegie bed -

I'm in LA from the Netherlands and am helping to refurbish the now dry totally fallow garden. I am not familiar with LA (Silver Lake-Franklin hilltop) conditions and what does best and what is needed to get the earth back in condition.
I am not sure where to start, except for taking out old root's etc. for the compost. There are 2 beds of about 2.50 x 1meter. The bed siding is about 30cm high and is now only 1/2 full at the most. There seems to be chickenwire mesh in the bottom - kind of rotting here and there and full of old roots.
So I suppose we need new earth - but what kind? What about organic compost or fertilizers? What about clay particles to hold the water better?
I'm starting them on Bokashi "composting" but it is not functioning yet. I'm here until April 18, and would like to have things under way by then.

I would do what you plan-get rid of the roots and weeds, but leave the soil in place. The mesh is probably there to keep out burrowing creatures, so I would leave it. You have only a few weeks, so then go to Lowe's or Ace Hardware, and buy some "Garden Soil". Check to make sure it says for vegetable gardens, so it is safe for growing food. Two brands that are probably available there would be Sta-Green and Kellogg. These come in 3 cubic foot bags. They are heavy but it is cheaper that way.
If you end up needing about 10 cm of soil mix, you will need about
2.5m x 1m x 2 beds x 0.10m depth= 0.6 m2 (that is meters squared) which is about 17.5 cubic feet.
At Lowes, the big bags are 3 cubic feet. so you need about 6 bags. At $8.48 per bag that is about $50, plus tax.
for fertilizer, it depends on how you want to do it, but for children you want to keep it super simple, plus it sound like you won't be there? So if it was me I would buy a 1 pound bottle of Osmocote Fertilizer, it is slow release so you can put the whole thing in when you plant the garden, then forget about it. I know they sell it at Ace, and I am pretty sure they sell it at Lowes but not positive. I think it is about $10, there are a couple of different formulations, I would not worry about it as long as it says for vegetable gardens on the label. Mix it in, in fact I would mix the old soil, new bagged soil, and Osmocote with the shovel. Osmocote is a premium brand of fertilizer, they have been around a long time. It is not organic but is certainly "food grade" and is used for commercial crops.
You might want to throw on top about 4 bags of mulch (2 cubic foot bags), at about $4 each that adds $16 to the project. That gives you about 2 inches depth which is probably enough.Don't get wood chips, rubber, or dyed mulch as it is going in a vegetable garden. Done!
What a great project. You may be able to do it a bit cheaper, but this would be straightforward and I think just one trip out in LA traffic.

Thank you very much! I went to the local nursery (my "kid's" advice). Took your advice on the amount, but went with organic vegi soil and some organic vegi fertilizer. It is not as slow release as the rest, so I'll have to mail them once in a while from Holland to remind them to throw on a few handfuls. Have gotten some good mulch as well.Tomorrow preparing the soil and by Thursday (no school) we should be able to sow some seed.

Oh this sounds fun, fun , fun!
You have some work ahead, but there shouldn't be any rocks so you can expect to plant Thursday. Maybe you could upload a photo then? And let us know if this was an appropriate amount to buy.