I would suggest incorporating as much organic matter into your beds as possible- whether store bought or homegrown compost or simply whatever you can scrape up around the yard- oak leaves, broken down pine mulch, etc. I'm not sure what you mean by "topsoil" but if you are planning on buying bags of so labeled products @ the big boxes I would strongly suggest you get something to aerate the mix like vermiculite, coconut coir, expanded shale, etc. I'd personally skip the perlite. If you mean the native soil (sand) you won't need that. But it sounds like you are trying to avoid the native FL soil. It's not really as bad as some might make it out to be. There are many plants that thrive in our soils and love the excellent drainage it provides. Mix in a bag of compost and you're set. All different soil types have their ups and downs- you just have to know how to tweak each one, and what types of plants will thrive in them. Hope that helps some. Good luck!

Naomi

I'm not the pro at this sort of thing but you'll get some good answers here I'm sure. However, you might want to try the Container Gardening forum too. They talk about planting mixes constantly and there are several posts about the perfect ratio.

Kate

What are you trying to grow?

For veggies, I use 1/2 potting soil and 1/2 Allgrow, which is composted organic material/manure. To that (it makes one full truckload in a Ford F150) I add pine bark, enough to make a chunky, light soil. It works great!

For Blueberries/Miracle Fruit I use Pine bark/pine fines and peat, and throw in 1/3 coconut husk chips to promote strong roots.

I don't layer, except for mulch on top of my fruit tree beds. For the veggies, I mix it all together.

Lisa

Most of my gardening is in raised beds. We used 3 landscape timbers high, so that is somewhere around 8" to 9". Start by first incorporating Canadian sphagnum moss to your bed. This is the stuff sold dry, in a compressed block, not the bagged stuff sold in the garden centers of the home improvement centers. I also like to build up the soil with my own leaf compost and mushroom compost. If you don't have any home-grown compost, start planting all your kitchen scraps and coffee grinds in the soil. Just dig small holes, drop in the vegetable and fruit peelings, and cover. If you can get some horse manure, add a layer of that. The mushroom compost can be purchased in bags from Lowe's. A trip to the Zellwood Farm is cheaper, if you need a lot. If you build your raise beds in the fall, add mulched oak leaves under the horse manure. Everything needs a few months to breakdown. Every Spring, top dress the beds with fresh compost and you will have wonderful soil to grow anything. I have been doing this for 15 years and grow roses, Hydrangeas, and perennials. My husband and I will be building vegetable beds in the Fall using this method. We do use a tiller to mix the soil once everything has had time to breakdown. I hope this helps, it my favorite way to garden. Mary

Mary,

Where can you find the compressed blocks? Home Depot had them last year but they told me they stopped carrying them because they never sold. Lowe's website says they carry it but not in central florida.

As for the landscape timbers, I built a 4x8 foot section 2 high a week or so ago that I had intended to turn into a raised bed but it turns out the ground in that area isn't level and the timbers move. I've been afraid to put soil in until I've ether made the ground level or nailed the timbers together. Or both. Will they stay together once filled or do I really need to secure them first?

i know several people who grow in straightup mushroom compost. their results were better than mine, planted in a potting mix that contained fines and peat. all the worries about drainage, while real enough for some areas, are moot here. so long as we're talking about a large bed right on top of the existing soil (no underlayments), it's been my experience that drainage isn't much of an issue. mushroom compost is cheap and environmentally sound.

whatever you fill it with, reconcile yourself NOW to having to replace it all in a few years, and probably move it to another part of the yard. pests build up quickly here in fla.

leaves and household compost work well, too. but their quantity is somewhat limited.

For those members that live in the Orlando area, BWI in Apopka carries the Canadian Peat in compressed blocks. They sell to the general public and you do not need a tax number to make purchases from them. They also sell ground conditioner pine bark ( minced pine bark) which we rosarians have always added to all soil mixtures. They also carry the bagged mushroom compost for a little cheaper than Lowes. I use their Fafard #3-B (potting soil), pine bark soil conditioner & mushroom compost, 1/2 bag of each making a wheelbarrow full for all my planting holes and potted plants. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of Milorganite to the bottom of your planting hole, up against the base of the root ball, once again after back-filling the hole, and around the surface of the new plant. Also we use 1/4 cup of rock phosphate sprinkled up against the root ball after back-filling half way. I have a current picture of a Buddleia that I planted this April using this method in an existing raised bed, that now is between 5' and 6' in full bloom. I use mulched oak leaves as a weed barrier. You now have all my secrets for success!

I forgot to answer Alohafromfl's question on the raised beds. The timbers need to be tied together. My husband has used two methods. He has used Simpson metal straps on the inside corners nailed thru the timbers. He also nails thru the top timber into the bottom timber on the sides, pre-drilling the nail hole. The second method which we plan to use this fall in building the 4x8 vegetable beds is to use 2x6 boards rather than the landscape timbers. He plans to sink a 4x4 post on each of the inside corners and bolt thru from the outside into these posts. To stabilize the long sides of the bed, he will also bury a couple of 4x4 posts on the inside and bolt thru from the outside. The landscape timbers will last about seven years before rotting out. We built our raise beds about fifteen years ago and replace the top timbers only once. As for the flower beds, I have never had to redo the beds with fresh soil. As long as you top dress your plants every Spring with a couple shovels of compost and use organic fertilizers, and use leaves for mulch, you are feeding the soil.

I plan to plant vegetables, cool weather vegetables (onions, scallions, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and carrots). I've received heaps of information on what materials to use in the raised beds, and for this I appreciate all the information given; thank you! However, as far as what order to put it in with layering (if you do layering in a raised bed) I've not received information to my knowledge regarding this on this post. I would probably just use manure, which is available at Ace hardware, and peat moss, but where do you find peat moss? Is it avalaible at Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, or Ace Hardware?

You can get peat moss at Lowes or Home Depot. I think HD carried it in compressed bales. 4cu compressed ft is actually about 12cu feet loose if I recall, but I could be wrong.
I am doing square foot gardening which uses raised beds and my mixture was: 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat, 1/3 vermiculite (the vermiculite was a pain to find in large quantities). That particular mix is all mixed together, not layered. But I've been reading others' posts about their mixes and there are as many opinions about what is best as their are people here LOL.

I have raised beds for veggies. I use a combo of things. I get to HD when they open on Sunday morning and buy a cart full of broken bags of potting soil, top soil even some rose soil for $10. I pick up black kow if there isn't any on the cart. I just mix it all together in the bed. I mulch with what I have at the time, pine straw, oak leaves etc.
Have fun!

Hey essence didn't we already go through this under your Enigma screen name??

Reading this over, it appears that Cindee is correct. (That's OK - no one says you can't change your name when you want to.) And your question is a repeat of your previous posts - you keep looking for more detailed answers. Maybe we aren't giving you the answers you want but I think you might be making this harder than it is. Look around Florida. Stuff is growing EVERYWHERE. Not just in cultivated yards. Tomato plants grow in muck or in carefully measured containers. I started planting things last year in a bed of nothing but pine fines and everything is doing great. Crytabel mentions that there are as many answers to your question as there are gardeners and it's a true statement. There isn't one perfect answer about soil mix. If the soil is not packed too solid to hold water or to let roots grow and if there's some food available, plants will grow. Try it.

If you really want to get into the science of soil mixes, take a look at the Container Gardening forum. That's just about all they talk about. LOL. Well, that's not really true, but it is a major topic over there. One of their regulars - a guy named Al - is a true soil wizard. You may want to send him an email with specific questions, but check out his recent post first (link below). He provides recipes and good science to back it all up.

Good luck and let us know how the planting goes.

Kate

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil mixes

Well..first, add a bag or two of perlite to encourage draining.

Then, see if there are any ranches near you or placees where you can get some horse manure. I use my chickens' droppings.

Better than that....stop at a few of the 3000 Starbucks near your home and arrange to collect their coffee grounds. Use those to amend the soil..directly...as long as you don't add too much at a time it will be fine. My grandparents lived a few blocks from Deerfield Beach and PaPa gardened on the west side of his garage to avoid any salt spray. He amended the soil with kithcen waste, mainly coffee grounds (which have very little acid after being perked). He kept a coffee can under the sink and filled it with egg shells, coffee grounds, potato peels, onion skins, scraps, etc. Once full, he would go and bury the contents in the garden, moving over to the side with each canfull. Never composted it at all. Think of how much good stuff can go into your garden rather than in the landfill!

I have photos of us with tomatoes as big as our heads! So...be positive and realize anything you do can't really hurt your horrid Florida dirt. Amend, amend, amend!!!