How much top soil I need to fill 20ft x3ft raised bed

yaut

Hi all,

My bf built a raise bed out of scaffolding boards yesterday. It's 20ft long and 3ft wide and about 1ft high. Now we need some top soil to fill it up. How much in tons should we buy? It's our first year of gardening and we need some help.

Thank you!

tippben · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:44 pm Post subject:

You need 60 cubic feet by volume. Don't worry about tonnage, as the weight of soil varies anyway, and especially depending on the moisture content. A builder's bag is 3'x3'x3', so that's 27 cubic feet. I'd get two, as you don't need to fill the whole bed to the top at once, and it'll help if you add some compost, dung, or other organic matter. Make sure it's topsoil (dark and crumbly). If it's light in colour, or full of stones and other crap, it'll be subsoil, and you'll get ripped off.

yaut · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:03 pm Post subject:

just I've found some adds on adverts.ie for the top soil and it's been sold by ton. so now here I'm confused Embarassed

I might just ask for two of those builder bags then. Thanks for your reply.

Lius · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:20 am Post subject:

You should seriously consider a soiless mixture (Mels Mix) as used in Square Foot Gardening, it is 1/3 coarse Vermiculite, 1/3 Peat Moss & 1/3 compost see:-

http://www.squarefootgardening.org/
There is a nice pampleth you can print-out and the book is very good.

This is my second year doing SFG and my crop yeild has doubled and my work load has halved PLUS the missus loves the look of new neat an tidy raised beds in the back garden, the old garden looked like a farmyard.

Gautama · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:48 pm Post subject:

I'm reliably informed that a builders bag, is about one ton, and costs about €75.
I've never got one myself so I can't swear by this.

yaut · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:05 pm Post subject:

yeah, I would expect it to cost about that. I've found this website http://www.topsoilireland.com/ and will attempt to order from them.

Greengage · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:20 am Post subject:

Check out the vegetable topsoil from this company, was out and about this morning and saw my local patio supplier stocking it in 1 ton bags looked really good stuff even felt good in the hand and smelled good.
http://www.enrich.ie/products

ian · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:55 pm Post subject:

60 cubic feet divided by 9 cubic feet (1 cubic yard approx one ton) will give you the tonnage required to fill the raise bed.