So that’s it! It’s a simple volume math equation of 4ft X 8ft x 1/2ft. If you have to spend money on building soil because of material availability or due to time it’s OK. Just keep these other cheap ways to fill raised beds in mind and collect the organic matter over time to refill your raised beds in the future. Plus, it is extra work! Let’s get into the details of the best ways to fill a raised garden bed! link to How Long Does a Raised Garden Bed Last? For those who are picky, wood chips created from a wood chipper are better than wood chips created from a wood shredder (both work fine!). Our target recipe is to fill raised garden beds with a mixture of about 40% soil, 40% compost, 20% aeration – plus a few other goodies that we’ll discuss momentarily. No deep digging, bending or kneeling is required because they’re above ground and can be built to a height that suits you. This probably works perfectly fine, and no doubt it is a better method than tilling the garden. Submit Planting Dates for Seed Starting and Transplanting Map. Before we get started, if your raised bed has not been built yet, it may be good to take a look at our article Are Raised Garden Beds Better Than In-Ground Garden Beds?. The way it lays together will also help prevent a suitable environment for slugs. If the garden being filled is a large raised bed or multiple raised beds, it is probably a better deal to buy in bulk and get the material in cubic yards. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. I would like recommend that you check always the cost To get a cheap price or whole lot. Hugelkultur can be your raised bed base, with grass clippings, manure, leaves , and woodchips all layered and mixed together. Are Raised Garden Beds Better Than In-Ground Garden Beds? Again, this method can be done with or without a raised garden frame. Unlike Ruth Stout, he found great success with using free wood chips as his mulch of choice along with composted chicken manure. Again, it may be beneficial to use some organic fertilizer, manure, or fish fertilizer in the first year to jump-start the feeding of the soil in a new raised bed. For garden use horse, cow, chicken, and goat manures are all suitable if they are no longer “hot”. Native perennials in new shapes and colours.We were simply blown away by the brilliant ... [More], Stunning colour variationsShades of pink, purple, orange, yellow, white and magenta ma... [More], Varieties That Enjoy Their Place in the SunToo many hot, sunny days and too little wate... [More], Massive 10" flowers!You will flip when you see the absolutely huge flowers of Exposure ... [More]. I highly recommend watching his film and videos on YouTube which you can find by simply searching for “Back to Eden Paul Gautschi”. This is a pretty standard size garden bed. It is important that wood that is already starting to rot is being used, as this will hold water and provide nutrients to the plants much better than fresh wood. A raised bed should be filled about halfway, or about six inches. When planting other crops, the hay must be pushed to the side and the seeds/transplants be planted into the soil. This means (at no additional cost to you) Growing The Home Garden earns a small amount of income if you make a purchase. Now, keep in mind: hay tends to have an abundance of weed seeds! This keeps weeds and grass at bay. But first, before you dive into those details, let’s take a big-picture look at how to choose your raised bed soil in today’s episode of the Beginner’s Garden Podcast and in the article below. To save some money, first, implement a subset of one of the first two methods above by putting some organic matter on top of the cardboard/newspaper. How to Propagate Cryptomeria (‘Black Dragon’). And even more importantly how can you fill a raised bed cheaply with good soil? It’s also possible there may be a number of weed seeds from the trees. Then, measure the shorter side, which is the width. A chipper will chop up the wood chips in a way that creates more surface area and will help the material break down faster. Thank you for visiting GrowingTheHomeGarden.com. Surprising Prices How To Fill A Raised Garden Bed Cheap.See our great selection and free shipping.Buy on How To Fill A Raised Garden Bed Cheap now.