Organic soil?

9 years ago

I care about my garden being organic, obviously because I want the produce to be organic.

My hubby just built another raised bed for my garden. In the existing ones we used about 1/2 native soil and 1/2 bagged organic mix. This bed is going to have to be filled with all mix that we bring in as we do not have excess native soil anymore. I am at a loss of what to do. Bagged organic garden mix that our nursery sells will cost roughly $200. Yikes. For dirt.

There has to be a better way right??? What do all of you use for an organic garden?

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Comments (4)

lgteacher
9 years ago
I have a small garden, but my friends who need more soil buy it in bulk from some local sources. It's cheaper than buying bagged. In Orange County that usually ends up being Tierra Verde. Check with your county Master Gardeners and they may know a source or two. There are also organic gardening clubs in many locations. Beware of the labe "topsoil." It doesn't really mean anything. A friend got soil delivered and it ended up being full of oxalis.
purslanegarden
9 years ago
Your calculation might be wrong. At the same time, assuming a 4x4 area, you still should have the native soil within that 4x4 area to mix in with any bagged soil that you get.
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houndsbreath
9 years ago
Start a compost pile. I just built a 6 ft x 4 ft x 1 ft raised bed and easily filled half the volume with homemade compost. The other half I filled with leftover soil from old pots and a few bags of soil I had laying around.
I have a 3 ft x 4 ft compost bin that gets all our leftover kitchen waste (family of 4), leaves from the yard and yard waste collected from the neighbors. It will take some time, but in about 6 weeks you could have good, well-rotted compost. Remember to turn the pile every few days and mix well when you first start. This was MUCH cheaper than buying 2.5 yards of soil to fill the new bed.
A previous post mentioned bulk soil: I'd go with bulk compost if you choose that route. The compost has plenty of nutrients and drains better in raised beds than most "potting" soils or "garden" soil mixes.
tripleione
9 years ago
I just use my native soil and improve it with compost and mulch.

My very first year gardening, I bought bagged soil for all my beds and did the half & half thing like you described. Found out that it would be too costly to do it that way every year going forward. Since then, I've worked to improve my native soil without having to purchase anything from the store.

I think the number one thing that you can do to maintain (and perhaps improve) your native soil is mulching. In my experience, mulching the garden is probably the most long-term effective thing you can do to improve your plant's growth.