Luckily for everyone, there are ways to fill up a garden bed cheaply without draining your savings account. Here are some of the best tips that are effective and won't cause your garden to fail.
Hugo Gardening
Never heard of Great Culture Gardening? Don't let the name fool you; it's an easy gardening method that can be effective and lead to great harvests.
The main idea behind giant cultural gardening is to bury as much decaying debris as possible under the soil. It could be sticks, food scraps, grass clippings, sawdust, chopped leaves and other materials. You also want to add logs that will break down over time; large chunks must be provided for large cultures.
If using this method, the bed will need to be filled 10-12 inches deep, filling any gaps with rotting material and soil.
Gardening with Lasagna
Lasagna gardening is similar in theory to giant cultural gardening, but you have to think about the layers you create. At the bottom of the raised bed, you add a layer of cardboard to smother the grass and kill any weeds. It also stops weeds from growing later.
After the cardboard, you add a layer of leaves and more cardboard. Continue creating layers with different organic materials and soils. You are basically creating a compost bin in the garden bed as everything will gradually break down.
Try Hardcore Gardening
Most people have never heard of core gardening. When you first read it, you might think it's too complicated and it's unlikely to work for you, but you'd be wrong. Core Gardening creates a "sponge" in the center of the garden to hold water, absorbing two feet of moisture in both directions.
Core gardening greatly reduces the amount of watering you need, but most gardeners say you'll have fewer weeds.
Dig in a garden bed ten inches deep and in the center of the raised bed. Lay out several layers of cardboard and fill the core with straw bales, leaves, grass clippings, or old branches. You can use one of these materials or a mix of them.
Fill the rest of the core with a mixture of topsoil, compost, and potting soil. This ditch looks like a mound in the middle of the garden and needs to be watered thoroughly to provide moisture to your plants throughout the gardening season.
Gardening with Ruth Stott
Gardening at RuthStout is similar to Back-to-Eden gardening. The idea behind this type of gardening is that you cover all exposed soil with organic mulch that eventually breaks down into the ground and adds nutrients. Keeping the soil covered has several benefits, such as reducing erosion and inhibiting weed growth.
When you garden with RuthStout, you cover your entire garden with a thick layer of hay. You put all the plants in your garden with hay surrounding them. Other methods use wood chips or compost, and for these methods to be effective, you must make sure the layer is four to six inches deep.
Use this method to help fill up your loft bed quickly!
Add peat moss
If you go to any garden store, you'll find a big bag of peat moss. Sphagnum moss is acidic, so you have to be careful not to add too much to the soil unless you are growing acidophiles like peppers, azaleas, or sweet potatoes.
However, adding peat moss to the soil is a great way to eliminate the need to buy additional potting soil or topsoil bags.
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9 Inexpensive Ways to Fill Your Raised Bed Garden
Filling raised garden beds can be expensive, and if you're on a gardening budget, you may be wondering how to fill a raised bed cheaply. Even if you have money, no one wants to spend a lot of money on dirt!
Two years ago, I filled several garden beds with bagged soil and spent over $50 per garden bed. This adds up quickly if you have four or more beds! I've decided I don't want to spend any more money and last year I've been looking for cheaper ways to fill up my garden beds.
As it turns out, there are several ways to expand garden soil without spending more money. Don't leave your wallet empty as you fill up your raised bed; here are some of my top tips and what you need to know about the soil you need for your raised bed.
Garden Soil vs Raised Bed Soil
When you're building a raised garden bed, you might think you can take garden soil to fill the bed, but that's not the case. You want to use the right soil for your bed that provides the right amount of nutrients and drainage for your plants to avoid standing water.
Let's take a look at some of the differences between garden soil and raised bed soil.
decomposition of organic matter
One of the main differences is that garden soil breaks down humus and organic matter faster than you can restore it, unless the roots are planted so deeply that they can get nutrients further into the ground.
All plants need nutrients, and humus is necessary. The more humus in your garden soil, the better it is for your plants and vegetables. You want to provide your plants with nutrients throughout the growing season; this is not easy in garden soil.
Garden soil holds more water
Plants need water to grow, and soil moisture is an important part of root development. However, when the water is not properly drained, it can lead to
Garden soil can be salty
Another difference is that garden soil can contain more salt than raised bed soil. Salt is highly corrosive; it can even damage sidewalks and driveways if left in place! Most plants cannot grow in soil that contains too much salt.
9 ways to fill a loft bed cheaply
When I first filled my raised bed with dirt bags from Walmart, I decided there was no way I could afford as many garden beds as I wanted. Filling up a loft bed is expensive, but no big deal, but I have a lot of beds in my garden. I have to find a way to fill up a raised bed cheaply.
Luckily for everyone, there are ways to fill up a garden bed cheaply without draining your savings account. Here are some of the best tips that are effective and won't cause your garden to fail.
Hugo Gardening
Never heard of Great Culture Gardening? Don't let the name fool you; it's an easy gardening method that can be effective and lead to great harvests.
The main idea behind giant cultural gardening is to bury as much decaying debris as possible under the soil. It could be sticks, food scraps, grass clippings, sawdust, chopped leaves and other materials. You also want to add logs that will break down over time; large chunks must be provided for large cultures.
If using this method, the bed will need to be filled 10-12 inches deep, filling any gaps with rotting material and soil.
Gardening with Lasagna
Lasagna gardening is similar in theory to giant cultural gardening, but you have to think about the layers you create. At the bottom of the raised bed, you add a layer of cardboard to smother the grass and kill any weeds. It also stops weeds from growing later.
After the cardboard, you add a layer of leaves and more cardboard. Continue creating layers with different organic materials and soils. You are basically creating a compost bin in the garden bed as everything will gradually break down.
Try Hardcore Gardening
Most people have never heard of core gardening. When you first read it, you might think it's too complicated and it's unlikely to work for you, but you'd be wrong. Core Gardening creates a "sponge" in the center of the garden to hold water, absorbing two feet of moisture in both directions.
Core gardening greatly reduces the amount of watering you need, but most gardeners say you'll have fewer weeds.
Dig in a garden bed ten inches deep and in the center of the raised bed. Lay out several layers of cardboard and fill the core with straw bales, leaves, grass clippings, or old branches. You can use one of these materials or a mix of them.
Fill the rest of the core with a mixture of topsoil, compost, and potting soil. This ditch looks like a mound in the middle of the garden and needs to be watered thoroughly to provide moisture to your plants throughout the gardening season.
Gardening with Ruth Stott
Gardening at RuthStout is similar to Back-to-Eden gardening. The idea behind this type of gardening is that you cover all exposed soil with organic mulch that eventually breaks down into the ground and adds nutrients. Keeping the soil covered has several benefits, such as reducing erosion and inhibiting weed growth.
When you garden with RuthStout, you cover your entire garden with a thick layer of hay. You put all the plants in your garden with hay surrounding them. Other methods use wood chips or compost, and for these methods to be effective, you must make sure the layer is four to six inches deep.
Use this method to help fill up your loft bed quickly!
Add peat moss
If you go to any garden store, you'll find a big bag of peat moss. Sphagnum moss is acidic, so you have to be careful not to add too much to the soil unless you are growing acidophiles like peppers, azaleas, or sweet potatoes.
However, adding peat moss to the soil is a great way to eliminate the need to buy additional potting soil or topsoil bags.
Homemade Compost
I can't think of a better addition to your garden than homemade compost, which is free if you do it at home. Bagged compost is expensive; it's like the gold of your garden, but making it at home only takes time and scraps around your home.
If you want to fill your raised bed cheaply with compost, you need to start composting a year before you build the bed. Compost takes 6 to 12 months to form, so you have to plan. You will add various ingredients such as grass clippings, kitchen scraps, newspaper, chopped leaves, etc.
Add compost manure
Do you have chickens or other farm animals? Turn their waste into compost manure for your garden.
You must always avoid adding fresh animal manure to your garden. Manure contains a lot of nitrogen, and if you plant it too quickly, it can burn your plants and kill them. The best manure comes from chickens, cows, horses, sheep, rabbits and goats. Never use dog, cat or human feces, as the waste has bacteria inside.
Ideally, you'll be composting your manure for at least a year, so take time to plan. However, since animals produce a never-ending amount of waste, this is the perfect way to fill a raised bed cheaply. Finally, let the animals save you some money.
buy soil in bulk
A few years ago, I gave up on buying bagged soil. It adds up too quickly when you need to fill up several garden beds for over $3 and sometimes closer to $5 per bag.
This is where bulk buying soil comes into play. Many gardening stores and local nurseries offer great discounts if you buy soil by truck or yard. This is a more affordable option than an individual bag.
Add aeration material
No matter which of the above tips you use to cheaply fill a raised bed, you still need to add material to your garden bed to encourage good ventilation. Aeration allows proper airflow throughout the soil, allowing water to reach the roots and avoiding compaction of the soil.
You don't want to add too much aeration material, as this will make the soil unable to hold moisture. Try materials like perlite, pumice, lava or grit.
How much soil do you need to fill a raised bed?
After you decide how to fill your raised bed cheaply, you must figure out how much soil you need to fill your raised bed. The first step is to measure your beds, which you will know if you build or buy them. You have to take multiple measurements per measurement to get the cubic feet of soil to fill the raised bed.
For example, if your garden bed measures 8'x4'x1', you will need 32 cubic feet of soil to fill the bed. You should buy more as the soil tends to settle and you may end up with gaps.
