Soil preparation

• Evaluating the soil in your raised bed and the organic matter you are using to top your bed up with.

Raised bed soil

• The base of the raised bed will sit on a certain soil type. As indicated.

• Most soils are loams which are a mixture of sand, silt and clays organic matter and air.

Loams

• Loams are named according to the main textural class present.

• The 3 broad groups are• Sandy loams • Loams• Clay loams

preparing your base soil

• Firstly mark out your bed and then turn the soil over with a spade or shovel.

• Check the depth of the soil. Ideal at this stage is if the soil is dark, friable, and 30-40cm deep.

• If not fork over the bottom of the trench or double dig.

Evaluate your soil texture

• A simple way to check soil texture is to moisten the soil and form it into a ball or worm shape and then press it with your thumb.

• The way the soil deforms tells you its texture.

• You can also use a feel test.

• Soils of different textures also feel different .

• Sands feel gritty• Clays feel smooth and

slippery, and • Loams sit in between

Sandy loams

• Sandy loams don’t hang together well and wont easily form a ball or break up easy when you try to roll them into a worm shape.

• They don’t hold water well and are normally low on nutrients

Clay loams

• These soils are yellow to brown, they form a ball or worm well and when you press them you leave a clear imprint of your thumb

• Clays are high in nutrients but these soils bake dry in summer and flood in winter because of their fine pore spaces

loams

• These are the best soils for gardening on they are made up of

• 40% sand, 40% silt and 15% clay and 5% organic matter.

• When you roll and squeeze them they deform but don’t break apart

Soil structure

• This describes the way your soil hangs together.

• An ideal soil structure for growing vegetables is one that is described as friable. This means it breaks up easily into a crumbly form .

• A simple shatter test will tell you what sort of structure your soil has.

• Take a spade full of soil and drop the back of the spade onto the ground, the soil on top will beak up, shatter.

• Different soils behave differently.

Shatter test sandy loam

• Sands are loose and collapse when you try to cultivate them

• Note the way the block of soil has broken up and collapsed

Shatter test clay loam

• Clays are tight and blocky and are hard to break up and cultivate

• Note how they kept their shape and hardly broke up when dropped

Shatter test loam

• Loams break up well to form a friable soil which drains well but holds sufficient air and water.

• Note the crumbly friable nature of the soil after it was dropped

Adding to your raised bed.

• The advantage of raised beds is that you can easily add

• Topsoil• Compost• Potting mix • Dried manures• Or any combination of

the above to improve on the soil you already have

Adding compost 1

• Compost is ready for use when

• it has broken down and you cant tell what the raw materials were that made it up

• It is a dark colour• It is crumbly and full of

worms.• This is home made, why

would you buy it when you can make your own!!

Adding compost 2

• There are many types of commercial composts available for purchase.

• I Like Mushroom compost which has a wonderful spongy structure.

• Add all composts thinly and regularly working them into the soil with a garden fork.

• DON’T SNIFF them.

Adding Topsoil

• You can top your bed up with extra top soil. But it is hard to get hold of and expensive.

• Make sure you break it up well and thoroughly mix it into your existing soil.

• Check that it is weed free

• You can use dried animal manures to top your raised bed up. Like using compost light regular additions worked regularly into the soil gives the best results.

Adding manures