Marianne's Response

Raised Bed Soil

Some of the organic raised bed & potting soils contain no soil. These are the ingredients for one of them. Recycled forest products, coir, perlite, dehydrated chicken manure, composted chicken manure, hydrolyzed feather meal, peat moss, kelp meal, worm castings, bat guano It doesn’t seem to have any structure to it. Is this really good for a raised vegetable bed?

Posted by George Frey on March 19, 2021

Marianne's Response

Yes, that sounds like a good product. I have used packaged soil (the Miracle Grow brand) for raised beds with great success because the ingredients you list will create what you think of as "soil" once they are watered and the manures and other animal and plant products begin to grow and feed on the inert ingredients. Worm casings, bat guano and the other things you mentioned in the ingredients contain millions of soil making life forms and these all work together with organic matter to support plant life. You can also use the bagged soil half and half with your own native soil to fill your raised beds. Just know that you can still improve the soil mix with fertilizers, a mulch, and amend the soil each year with organic matter such as manures and compost.  Enjoy your raised beds and spring planting and I expect you will have a bountiful harvest this summer. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti