Soil For Raised Veggie Garden

Hey y'all. DH finally went and built me a raised veggie garden, complete with a cuke trellis on one end. Whoo-hoo! Yeah, I'm doing the happy-gardener-dance!

My question is this...since I've never had a real raised bed...what should I fill it with? DH is suggesting a mix of top soil and mushroom compost as the main ingredients...probably a ton of each. Then we can amend it with whatever is needed to get some good, good dirt out there. I've never really used mushroom compost, so I'm wondering what y'all think of using this mix? It sounds good, but many things are good in theory, lol!

Planning on having toms, cukes, bell peppers, lettuce, onions, carrots and maybe a few herbs this year. Never done carrots before and I'm excited to try them. We feed them to the dogs for treats, they love them.

Thanks for any tips or suggestions,
Heather

Hubby's suggestion sounds really good.A cuke trellis sounds neat & will save a lot of ground space.

Thanks. I was just reading last night that mushroom compost can be very high in nitrogen, so we may want to rethink this. Whatever book I was reading this in did have a recipe for soil for raised veggie gardens...now just to find it again! If anyone else is interested in know it let me know and I'll post it here.

I don't think you would have an issue using the mushroom compost as long as you mix it well with the top soil. Regular compost works the same way. You have to have something to "feed" those veggies. And compost is much better for your soil, veggies and you than a lot of the commercial stuff. You can side dress with some of that compost down the line or make "tea" for fertilizer. Not a problem. Just remember you get out of it what you put into it. :)

YEah, I hear you about the commercial stuff. The recipe I found was 50% top soil, 25% aged manure and 25% compost. Anybody know how manure and mushroom compost compare as far as nitrogen goes? I don't want to end up with beautiful plants and no veggies!!

Depending on the composition of your locally available top soil, I would add some sand to that mix, too. One web site I found recommended 1/3 top soil, 1/3 organic matter, and 1/3 sand. When I mixed mine up this spring, I couldn't quite make myself add that much sand, but I probably have about 20%. I used a blend of lawn refuse compost (from our city), composted herbivore manure from the zoo, and rice hulls for my organic matter, which is about 40% of the mix and 40% top soil -- which wasn't quite as nice as I would have liked. However, the results have been very encouraging. The soil drains well, and even with the clay based top soil, I can push my hand into the soil easily.

I've been blogging my raised bed veggie garden. Here's the address:

http://web.mac.com/farmach/Site/Blog/Blog.html