How Much Soil Do I Need For A Raised Bed

Framed raised beds are frequently used for vegetable gardening.

How much soil do i need for a raised bed. Some plants are deep rooted while others only require shallow soil to cover their roots. This is the amount of dirt you will need to fill your. The most common depth of raised beds is 11 inches 28 cm because this is the height of two 2 6 inch boards which is commonly used to frame raised beds. With a height of 11 your raised garden bed has plenty of room to drain properly.

When you add a layer of mulch to your flower bed or other natural area it instantly creates a barrier that makes it hard for weeds to find their way in blocking sunlight and heeding growth. For best results incorporate 20 30 soil amendment manure or compost into your mixture your plants will love it. 9 cubic feet of topsoil 9 20 quart bags 4 5 cubic feet of compost 4 5 20 quart bags 1 5 cubic feet of soilless potting mix. For refreshing gardens usually 3 6 inches 76 152 mm of new soil is sufficient.

The amount of soil you need depends on two things. Cubic feet yards even the number of bags. The soil quantities shown are approximate. The amount of soil you need to purchase to fill your raised bed garden depends on the size and depth of your bed.

To fill a 3x6 bed with 10 sides you will need 15 cubic feet of blended soil. That starts you off needing around a foot of gardening soil. Remember that the plants that you are planting will also take up space in the raised bed. To create the blend use the following quantities.

Taking a look at the height of your raised garden a common choice is around 11. Landscape supply mixes are often high in salts and high in ph and completely unbalanced in nutrients. Calculating how much soil you need for a raised bed planter box is relatively easy as long as your eyes don t roll when you are asked to do a bit of math. 1 5 cups gardener s supply granular organic fertilizer.

Soil and compost is then filled into the raised beds to a depth just a few inches 7 6 cm below its rim. If the thought of doing some math on a calculator makes your head swim and your knees wobbly don t worry. The deeper the raised bed the more soil you will need. For example if you have a length of 5 feet a width of 4 feet and a depth of 2 feet the volume would be 40 cubic feet 5 x 4 x 2 40.

Raised bed soil calculator we ve seen far too many raised beds filled with potting mix from the landscape supply company with unhappy plants and unhappy gardeners. If you have a hard border or a raised bed measure the depth of the partition. If you are not sure how high to make your raised bed consider what you want to grow. Remember that soil will settle so be a little generous with this measurement.

Enter your measurements hit calculate and it s all worked out for you. Use the handy chart below to determine how many bags of miracle gro raised bed soil to purchase. By far the easiest way to calculate quantities is to use the soil calculator above. Adjust the soil quantity accordingly.