It is important that you have a baseline for your native soil to make these amendments meaningful. Have you had a soil test? Can you describe the soil structure (composition, drainage, existing organisms)?

I can't think of any reason to add perlite or peat moss to a raised bed. These sterile materials provide no nutrients and a raised bed seldom needs them to provide drainage. Depending on what your native soil is like, I'd probably go with 50% compost, 45% native soil, 5% washed sand.

Sounds expensive and you could use some clay components. The peat and perlite are nutrient-bare filler and there's way too much perlite in that mix.

Organic matter/compost is great stuff, but clays help bind and exchange the nutrients that OM helps make available. Topsoil usually contains some clays. It's not a huge deal as much as all the perlite/peat, though. More soil in, less filler in...almost 1/2 your soil mix is filler.

thank you all for your advice! I've switched up the mix thanks to your feedback.

11.25 gallons BG compost
12 gallons GG compost
84 gallons topsoil
10 gallons sand

117.25 gallons total
That's about $3.40 a cu. ft.

sound better?

no one, hm? Well, thanks a lot.

Be more patient. It takes awhile to get a response some times. I don't have an answer for your question, but I'm sure you will get some soon!

haha, thank you for the advice :)

That's about $90 per yard which seems a bit expensive but is probably a rather premium soil mix. I'm not sure if I'd pay for 'topsoil.' You might find premixed veggie soils available in bulk for ~$30-80 per yard not including delivery if you don't feel like digging.

I'd agree with Art, the mix looks good, but the price seems high. I get 50 lb bags of washed sand at a box store for $3 each and I risk using city compost because it's free. I use my own topsoil, so my own raised beds' soil cost is pennies per cubic foot (with only the 3 mile drive & my own labor as uncounted costs). It's pretty common though for everyone too overpay for composted organic matter when starting out, it can take awhile to find the freebie/cheap sources in your area.

I still kick myself for never taking advantage when the zoo in SF covertly gave away the exotic animal manures, many years ago. I probably denied myself my only chance in life to grow cabbages in composted tiger poop.

Dicot - I'll bet Charlie Sheen got his start that way.

I agree the price is a bit high but I'm really not all that worried about the price. So long as I have a mix that's going to make the veggies happy I'm happy. I'm making a bin and starting a compost pile as well this spring so hopefully by next season I won't have to worry about buying too much. Thank you all for the opinions and advice I really do appreciate it!

And Dicot, that certainly would have been one interesting story to tell people.
Hope you're all having a magical night.

Mel's Mix is the only thing I'll ever use again. I have had different garden's over the years probably not as many as some on here but due to moves and such I've had to start over several times. When I did this raised bed I went with the square foot gardening mix (kinda) and everything grew like weeds even in limited sunlight. I was extremely please and will be doing it again.

I used 1/3 compost by the truck load (Mel recommends at least 3 kinds of compost if it is manure. I just used was my nursery dishes out)

1/3 perlite expensive and I might not have used exactly 1/3

1/3 spagnum moss

mixed well. And just like the book recommends I only add compost and mix well when needed due to settling and such.

So far I couldn't be happier with the results it drains well, holds some moisture and my plants grow great. I don't add fertilizer and I grow organic.

A soil less mix will work just fine in a raised bed. Think of it as a giant pot. I would add a bunch of pine bark fines to the mix though, which is also a cheaper material if that's the way you want to go.

That being said, the extra drainage provided by the soil less mix is not as important in a raised bed due to the ground below acting as a giant wick. You can get fabulous growth in a mix like this, but is better suited to synthetic fertilizers then organic fertilizers. Many would prefer a more soil based mix, especially where you are using compost which is more organic. It would be much cheaper to use a more soil based mix as well.

Personally, I use a combination of the above. I do bark based soil less mixes in pots, then when I'm finished with them I mix it with soil and compost to throw in the garden.