Miracle Gro Garden Soil for Raised Beds? (2024)

FAQs

Can you use Miracle-Gro garden soil in a raised bed? ›

Whether deep or shallow, raised beds give a gardener a way to create ideal soil conditions on an even larger scale. While potting mix alone is too light for use in raised beds, creating a 50:50 blend of potting mix and Miracle-Gro® All Purpose Garden Soil will give just the right balance.

Add in fertilizer: The best soil for raised beds contains nutrients that promote growth. Raised bed soil is nutrient rich and contains a higher percentage of organic material than garden soil. However, you should also add additional organic fertilizer throughout the growing season to ensure a productive harvest.

Topsoil should be dark and crumbly with an earthy smell. Do not purchase soil that is very high in sand or clay, foul-smelling, or has grayish mottling or a chalky, sticky, or rough texture. Some sellers have a mix of topsoil and compost which can make an excellent growing media for raised beds.

Raised Bed Soil: Where Garden Soil and Potting Soil Combine

You want to use far more garden soil than potting mix, around a 5:1 ratio. You can also make your own raised bed mix by mixing all the individual parts of garden soil and potting soil, so topsoil, bark or peat, compost, and perlite or vermiculite.

The problem with MG is that the nitrogen is derived from synthetic ammonium and water soluble nitrates, producing off-chemicals that are harmful to soil microbes, worms, and all other forms of life in the soil.

Potting Mix is formulated to feed the soil for plants growing in indoor and outdoor containers, while Raised Bed Soil with its slightly larger particle size, has versatile uses for both larger containers and raised bed gardening.

To start, lay down sheets of cardboard or newspaper for weed suppression and then fill the raised bed structure halfway up with alternating layers of nitrogen-rich materials (like kitchen scraps and grass clippings) and carbon-rich materials (like wood chips and dried autumn leaves).

A 40 qt bag is 1.3(and some) cu ft. 4'x8'x[height] is the volume of your bed. If you assume the height is 1', your volume is 32 cu ft. Divide by 1.3 per bag, and I think you need 24.6 40qt bags, so 25 bags.

Raised Bed Soil is the optimal choice for filling your raised garden beds, as it is bolstered with a hardy amount of organic nutrients such as poultry meal, kelp meal and worm castings that will help feed the soil your plants will grow in.

Layer the bottom with cardboard or newspaper as a weed barrier, which will decompose over time. Then, use a mix of yard waste, leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps layered with soil and compost.

What do you put in a raised garden bed before soil? ›

The best way to save money on soil by filling the bottom of your raised garden beds with leaves is to install the leaves in layers just 6 inches thick at a time. Compress them by walking on them and then wet them with a garden hose. Once that's done, add the next layer.

The soil is the key ingredient to a successful raised vegetable bed. Get enough light topsoil or raised bed soil to fill the estimated depth of the raised bed. Since tomatoes are heavy feeders and prefer a rich, organic soil, mix in two- to three-inch layers of compost or cow manure to the top one-third of the topsoil.

To apply simply spread 2-3 inches of Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil All Purpose across the planting area and then mix into the native soil. Then dig a hole and plant your new plants.

Cardboard or newspaper: Cardboard is a great option if you are on a budget. You can line the bottom of your raised garden bed with cardboard and newspaper to deter pests and weeds.