Topic: where to get soil and manure for my raised beds

[David P]

Hello all,  I have an allotment in nottingham and am looking to make some raised beds.  I just need a few tonnes of soil and a couple of manure to put in them..... has anyone got any ideas where to look or ask?

Many thanks

Dave

[Digeroo]

Is anyone building an extension?

[PAULW]

On our allotment you are not allowed to bring in top soil from outside just in case it is contaminated, make sure your allotment will allow you to import soil

[manicscousers]

We have just had 16 tons of well rotted manure from the local stables. This has been added to some of our beds and fruit cage beds (we are all raised beds ). The soil, we have a Les, he is the little green truck man and we have used him for ages. If you're allowed to import soil, look in your local paper and see if you have a Les 

[digmore]

Set up your raised bed, dig out the soil within the border of the bed to a depth of a foot or so. Fill the hole and above to the height or just below of your raised bed with manure and then back fill with the soil you have taken out. As the manure settles the soil will level off, giving you a planting depth of 12 inches or more and each year after,  just top up with compost.

You could be a real smart arse and have a hot bed for your first year if you time it right and your bed is deep enough.

Digmore

[digmore]

Ps. Nearly forgot, don't pay more than £20 for 10 tonne of horse or cow manure and that's delivered.

Digmore 

[sparrow]

I've dug about a foot of soil out of the paths next to the raised beds on my plot and dumped the soil on the beds to raise the height. The paths have been backfilled with free woodchip to bring them back up to level - though they haven't settled yet and walking on them feels a little like walking on a lilo! 

I was hoping that the woodchip would help with drainage as the plot's on fairly solid clay, but at the minute the whole thing is waterlogged again.

Digmore - that's a very cool tip. Might try that myself.

[gavinjconway]

Spot on Digmore.... use you own soil and add loads of manure and HM compost if you have.. Even if it takes 2 years to fill you can still grow straight away in the soil there now. 

[Vinlander]

I've said this before ... but if you have free woodchip available on your allotment then a great use for it is to dig out your paths 30cm deep even if this includes the upper (better) subsoil - and use this otherwise wasted, trampled topsoil on your raised beds (it will soon un-trample itself - if that's the right word).

With a 50cm wide path as a minimum you get nearly a cubic metre of topsoil from every 6m of path - that's a lot of money saved from the landscape suppliers - and remember there's always at least one more path than the number of beds.

Then you can fill the trench right up to the top with woodchip and no weeds will grow in it -  unless you have standing water over winter - but even then nothing could be easier to hoe than woodchip (don't leave it and let the weeds form a mat though). Woodchip paths will also drain your beds - especially if there's a slope you can connect them to...

It's worth filling the paths very high because you need to top up the woodchip regularly as it rots to humus - and you don't want it settling lower than the boards. Every six months or so should do it, but after 3-5 years it will be rotted enough to dig out and add to your raised beds (great soil improver) and you can start all over again.

There may be a few large bits of wood that haven't rotted but that means they will continue to rot so slowly they don't rob nitrogen - ignore them unless you have OCD and a good big seive and pointless hours to use it.

I also grew a great crop of fly-free carrots in a builder's bag full of well-rotted woodchip - the flies don't look for carrots a metre above the soil.

Cheers.