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| Hi all, I posted this elsewhere, but got no responses...this seems like a good group of people from AZ, so I hope someone can help me out! I have a nearly complete raised bed that will need 5 or 10 yards of soil. It's going to be a general purpose bed, with various small trees/shrubs/succulents/etc. in it. I need some advice on what kind of soil to use. Most of the plants we'll be using would probably be OK in the native soil, so I'm thinking that a sandy screened topsoil would probably be OK. But, many of the vendors around here have a raised bed mix that contains a lot of compost. I know that the soil isn't great, but I don't want to make it too rich. Here's my wife's first-pass list of ideas. This area will be spine-free. Maybe some bigger stuff too: Thanks for any advice! |
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- Posted by fabaceae_native z6 NM (My Page) on Wed, Dec 12, 12 at 11:10
| If your native soil is truly sandy it might work OK, but I've found that although my native soil works great in the garden, it is a complete disaster once I use it in any amount in a pot or raised bed (or the compost pile for that matter). This is due to the clay content. Now I make my own potting soil with volcanic scoria (cinder) mixed roughly 60/40 with some fluffy organic material such as compost. It works really well for me and is basically free, since I make the compost myself, and collect the scoria from a nearby volcanic hillside. Without that much compost you could use peat or some inexpensive compost available by the truckload. I think you'll have better results if you avoid anything loosely called "topsoil" since this can often be bare mineral soil with no organic matter, lots of caliche, and a high clay content. |
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