Use last year's soil?

I have 3 bags of soil- 2 miracle grow potting soil mixes which have fertilizer, and one bayer tree and shrub mix which I bought last summer and never opened. They have been in my garage the whole time.

I'm creating a new raised bed in full sun and want to know if I could possibly use these without any harm? I'm thinking the ferts are no good but I don't care about that, I just want it to be safe for my plants.

Anyone have an idea?

Thanks,

Maureen

Of course - use them. What do you think might be wrong with them? ;o)

Al

I agree - there should be nothing wrong with the soil.

If you consider that most soil is thousands of years old, one year isn't going to make much difference.

You might want to smell it - if it has some funk odors from storage issues, you might want to spread it out and get some air to it. Even so after that - it would still be fine.

I guess I was mainly concerned about the fertilizer and any possible chemical changes.

But thanks both of you for the info, this will save me a little money from not buying more soil ☺

Maureen

Thats pretty expensive stuff to use for raised beds. Have you considered using something like a landscape mix. All my beds were filled two years ago with Earths Finest Landscape mix bought at Lowes for $2.79 per 2 cubic foot bag (or maybe it was 2.5 cf per bag). I have used the same mix in one, two, four and five gallon nursery pots and have grown all kinds of flowers, herbs, and vegetables in them also. It doesnt have to be the "Earths Finest" brand name. It seems most landscape mixes are basically the same. I recognize the fine and rougher pine bark plus sand in my mix and the basic body of the mix is fluffy and drains pretty fast. After two years I can still hand dig fluffy soil in my raised flower beds, no trowels or shovels necessary. The two year old soil from the nursery pots still drained good too but I mixed it with newer bags of soil just to insure that it would remain fast draining. I have had some problems with peat based soil mixtures getting a little soggy their first year of use but am well pleased with my bark based mix. It seems to be a good inexpensive soil that works well by itself and forms a good base mixture that can be easily modified for special purposes.

You're right it was costly. This year I have been buying the $.98 top soil from Lowe's and mixing it with turface and compost, and humus in some cases.

I had never tried a landscape mix but from what you say it sounds good, especially after two years. I will look for it next time I'm at Lowe's which will very likely be tomorrow!

Thanks for the info,

Maureen